Life
by Iwillbelieveit
Summary: Sequel to Strength. It's been a month since Mastermind's removal from Zoe and she & Dan have been together ever since, but every action has to have a reaction. KORPS are angry at Dan and Zoe for their refusal to allow Mastermind the possession of Zoe's mind. Dan and Zoe must face the consequences of their actions, but at what price? Rated for swearing and suggestive scenes.
1. Chapter 1

**Guess what? I'm baaack! Bet you didn't expect me to be back this soon, did you? Well, here I am! :) I hope you guys like this one as much as you loved S_trength. _You guys really are amazing with all your reviewing! Since you guys seemed to love the Zan moments I put into _Strength_, I've tried to put heaps into this one. I tried to tell this story from Dan's perspective, but it just wouldn't fit with the storyline like it did when I told it from Zoe's. ****Enjoy!**

"Put this on." Aneisha said.

It was a black scarf, folded into a blind fold. I raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "Neish, what's this about? I hate surprises."

"You'll like this one." Aneisha insisted, again pushing the scarf towards me. I sighed and reluctantly put it on.

"So where are we going?" I asked as Aneisha took my hand and started leading my down the beach. I kept stumbling, and each time Aneisha would stop and allow me to regain my footing before we continued.

"Just down the beach." Aneisha said. "And I'm not allowed to tell you anymore, so don't ask."

"Who told you that?" I asked.

"Dan – Dammit! Just shut up and you'll see when we get there, okay?"

"Okay." I said reluctantly and lapsed into silence. I wondered where we were going – and how Dan had anything to do with it. I'd had a strange afternoon. When Aneisha had come over earlier, she'd picked out a dress from my wardrobe and made me put it on. It was a dress that ended just above my knees and clung to my body until my waist, where the skirt flared out slightly. It was black and sleeveless. Aneisha had then curled my hair, leaving it so it fell around my shoulders and had done my makeup, leaving it simple – natural-looking, but so it made my eyes stand out. She had then thrown me some shoes – they happened to be the highest pair of heels I owned, simple black pumps. They were, in fact, the reason why I was walking along the beach as if I were a toddler who had just learned to walk.

Then Aneisha stopped and she forgot to tell me, so I slammed into her back.

"Ow." I groaned, rubbing my nose. "Can I take this thing off now?"

"I'll get it. You'll mess up your hair if you do." Aneisha said. I stayed perfectly still as she undid the knot at the back of my head. I blinked as the dim sunlight hit my eyes – the sun was setting. I turned my attention to the group of people a few metres away. I knew every single one of them – they were all my friends, except for one. The exception was the blonde standing at the front of the group, a small smile on his face. That was Dan, my boyfriend.

It quickly occurred to me that all the guys – including Dan – were wearing suits – narrow black tie, black dress jacket, black pants and a white button up shirt. But the usual dress shoes that were worn with them were missing on all of them; Dan, Tom and Frank. Instead, their feet were bare and they rolled up their pants legs halfway up their calves. Dan, true to his hatred for wearing ties properly, had left his top shirt button undone and had left his tie loose. You _had_ to give him credit for tucking his shirt in, though.

Stella and Aneisha were wearing strapless versions of my dress – except Aneisha's was covered in silver sequins and Stella's was midnight blue.

I switched my gaze back to Dan as he said, "Happy birthday, Zo."

"You know better than anyone –"

"That you don't have a birthday, yes, I know." Dan said. "But I figured fifteen years without a single birthday is cruel enough. So we decided –"

He stopped talking as Aneisha cut him off, saying, "No, you decided."

Dan sighed. "Do you want to tell the story?"

"Yes." Aneisha replied as she moved to stand beside Tom. "Because if you tell it, you'll go all modest on us and say '_we did this, we did that'_. When really, it's _'Dan did this, Dan did that'_." Aneisha said, deepening her voice to mimick him.

Dan sighed again, but gestured for her to continue.

"So, your boyfriend here decided that since you don't know when your birthday is, we had to find a date. Really, there was no point in me and Tom and Stella and Frank turning up, because he was the one who figured out what date for it be on. He said it had to be the right date, the one you'd pick if we asked you."

"And?" I asked.

Dan had moved to stand beside me while Aneisha was talking. Now, he grasped my fingers gently.

"Think, Zoe." He whispered in my ear. "What happened a year ago today?"

I wracked my brain desperately. I knew that everything Dan did – every word, every action, even every breath – he did for a reason. He chose today to be my birthday for a reason.

Finally, I found it. I looked at Dan, standing beside me, and smiled softly. "A year ago, I joined M.I.9. The exact date I would have chosen."

"Why is that?" Dan asked softly, squeezing my fingers gently.

"Because that's the day my first life and ended and this life started."

"Which one do you like better?" Dan asked, kissing my temple lightly. A shiver ran down my spine and I smiled. "This one. Definitely."

Dan kissed me, his fingers trailing up my arm gently.

"You two make me sick." Tom said and I heard the thump of Aneisha's hand meeting Tom's bare skin.

"Children, save it for the bedroom, please." Dan said as he pulled away from me, turning his head to look at them. I rested my head in the crook of his neck and giggled, looking at Aneisha and Tom out of the corner of my eye. They were both staring at Dan, their jaws slack.

Frank rolled his eyes as he stepped forward, extending his hand forward, which held a small box. "Happy birthday. This is from Stella too."

I gave them both a quick smile as I took the box from his hands, before turning my attention to the wrapped gift. Gently, I eased the wrapping paper off the box. When I half-unwrapped it, Tom groaned. "Just open it already."

"Hey, it's her birthday. She can do what she likes." Dan said.

"Does that include doing you?" Tom asked jokingly.

Dan shrugged, smiling "I wouldn't say no."

Tom laughed and I hit Dan's shoulder playfully with the box, its contents rattling against the inner sides of it. I let the wrapping paper fall to the ground as I turned my attention to the box. I opened it, and inside sat a bracelet, with a charm of a vaguely familiar black-and-white symbol hanging from it.

"It's the ying-yang symbol." Stella said. "The good in the bad and the bad in the good."

I nodded and smiled, glancing up at her. "Thank you."

I slipped the bracelet on as Aneisha stepped forward. "Happy birthday, Zo."

She passed me a small box. This one wasn't wrapped, but it had a ribbon around it. I eased the ribbon off gently and opened the box. Inside was a necklace. I picked it up, dangling its charm in front of my face. It was a lion with tiny metal bars across its face, like it was caged.

"A caged lion." I said, smiling up at her. I knew the hidden meaning behind the gift.

"It's beautiful, Neish. Thank you." I said as I put it on.

Aneisha shrugged and Tom passed me a small box. "I hope you like it, Zoe."

I smiled. Tom had wrapped the box, but the box was nice enough. It was one of those velvet boxes that you got jewellery in when you bought it. I opened the box and inside was a bracelet. It was almost exactly the same as the one Stella and Frank had given me. But the charm on this one had a circle engraved into it, with life written in the middle. I glanced at Tom questioningly and he grinned. "I looked up your name meaning."

"And mine is life." I said, playing with the charm. I'd always liked my name, but since Dan told me what it was, about a month ago, I'd started to like it even more.

"My turn." Dan said. I turned to look at him. "Dan, you didn't really –"

"Yes, I did." Dan said firmly. "You're my girlfriend and I love you and I wasn't going to go to all this trouble without getting to buy you some ridiculously expensive present too."

I sighed but smiled as he reached into his back and pulled out a golden necklace, dangling it in front of my face. I reached out and slid my fingers under the charm. But it wasn't a charm. It was a golden, heart-shaped locket. I gently eased open the locket with edge of my fingernail and it easily sprung open. On the left side, writing was carved into the metal.

"See how she leans her cheek upon her hand; or the glove in that hand that I might touch that cheek." Dan said softly. I looked up at him and smiled gently. "The Romeo and Juliet scene."

Dan nodded. "After Boldovia was when the Romeo and Juliet stuff started up, so I figured it was fitting."

"But why that quote?" I asked.

"Because you looked gorgeous while I said that line." He said softly. I looked back down at the locket and noticed the photo on the right side of it. It was a photo of Dan and I. I was smiling into the camera and you could only see the side of Dan's face because he was kissing my cheek. I smiled as I thought back to when we'd taken that photo. Right after I'd snapped the photo, I'd turned my head and wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. He'd wrapped his strong arms around my waist and kissed with such intensity that when we'd finally broken apart, my lips had felt numb.

I clicked the locket shut and put it around my neck and my gaze locked onto Dan's. "Thank you."

Then I stepped forward, wrapping my arms around his neck and resting my head against his chest as I said, "For everything, Daniel."

"You're worth it, Zo." Dan whispered. "And I have another surprise for you."

"Another one?" I asked in disbelief as he pulled away and turned me around. Frank set a massive plate of jelly down on the sand and stuck two candles in the top of it – one shaped like a one and the other shaped the number six. I smiled and realised that he'd pulled off what my dream birthday party - from the jelly cake to the location. Frank lit the candles and Dan kissed my jaw tenderly. "Blow them out and make a wish."

I knelt down in front of the jelly cake and closed my eyes before I blew. When I opened my eyes, I could feel Dan beside me.

"What'd you wish for?" Dan asked.

"Can't tell you that." I said, turning my head slightly to look at him.

"I can always make you tell me." Dan said. He grabbed me by the waist and pushed me down, climbing on top of me so I couldn't get up.

"What'd you wish for?" Dan asked again, cocking his head to the side.

"I didn't wish for anything." I said truthfully. "There's nothing that I want that I haven't already got."

Dan gave me a look before he climbed off me. I sat up and curled into his side, resting my head on his shoulder. Frank passed me a plate of jelly and I ate it happily. When I finished, I set the plate aside and someone turned a stereo on. Immediately, _Stereo Hearts_ by Gym Class Heroes started playing and Aneisha jumped up, kicking off her shoes. "I love this song! C'mon."

I kicked off my own heels, which I was glad to get rid of because my feet felt as if they were minutes away from snapping free of my ankles. Aneisha and I were laughing hysterically as we twirled each other and danced with no rhythm whatsoever. We danced for a few more songs until _Stay _by Rihanna came on and I felt strong arms wrap around my waist. "Mind if I steal her away for a bit, Neish?" Dan asked.

"Take her. She's no use to me now." Aneisha said jokingly.

"Love you too!" I cried, laughing as Dan led me away. I turned around in his arms, wrapping my own around his shoulders and resting my head on his left shoulder.

"Thank you, Dan." I said after a while, lifting my head to look at him. "This is amazing."

Dan smiled. "You deserve it, Zo. After everything that happened . . ." He trailed off, glancing at the caged lion dangling from my neck. "After everything you've been through, you deserve to be treated special – like a princess."

I smiled. "I love you, Daniel Morgan."

"And I love you, Zoe London." Dan replied softly, using the name that we for me whenever I needed a last name. But somehow, I shiver never failed to run down my spine every time he called me by it.

"My Zoe." Dan whispered, kissing me softly. Well, he tried to kiss me softly. I felt the effort to keep it slow and soft. But like always, whenever he tried to kiss me softly, it went up in smoke. He kissed me hungrily, his hands gentle against my hips, a dark contrast to his mouth. I pushed myself up on my toes, winding my fingers through his hair as I kissed him with the same passion. Usually, I wouldn't kiss him this way unless we were alone. But today was special.

Faintly, some part of me questioned why nearly every kiss turned into a make-out session.

_Because you nearly lost each other_, a voice in the back of my head supplied. I sighed softly into Dan's mouth and my hand slid out of his hair, across his cheek until it was resting on his chest.

"Come on, you two." Someone said. "Keep it G."

Sighing I pulled away from Dan and we walked over to where Stella and Frank were sitting on the sand. Stella was sitting in Frank's lap and I gave them a knowing smirk as Dan and I flopped down on the sand across from them. I lay down on the sand and put my head in Dan's lap. He smiled down at me before jerking his head toward Aneisha and Tom a few metres away, who were kissing furiously. "Why didn't you tell them off?"

Frank sighed. "We tried. But they don't have the self-control you do."

I smiled, looking up at the sky, spread out above us as I fiddled with the heart locket around my neck. The sun had set some time ago and the stars twinkled at me, telling me their secrets in languages I had no hope of understanding.

**I hope you liked the first chapter of _Life_! I swear, this story does have a plotline, but it's going to take a while to get into it! Please review, I love hearing from you guys! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**And here's chapter 2! I'm glad you guys love this story and sorry for the incorrect Romeo and Juliet quote in the last chapter, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get it right! I want to thank ILoveMIHighAndSherlock for pulling me up and correcting me on that (I figured it probably had nothing to do with towels, but I heard that every damn time). Enjoy!**

When I woke up the next morning, I could feel fingers tracing my spine. I smiled because I knew who it was, without even opening my eyes. There was only one person in existence that could make me feel like that with only a single touch. I realised that the last time I had woken like this; wrapped up in Dan's arms, was a little over a month ago, when Mastermind's consciousness had been removed from my body.

I turned over in Dan's arms and before I could say anything, he kissed me, as if he had been waiting for me to wake up just so he could kiss me. Knowing Dan, he probably had. He kissed me just as hungrily as he's kissed me the night before; rolling so he was hovering over the top of me, his arms on either side of my head supporting his weight. I wrapped my arms around his neck as we broke apart and he smiled, resting his forehead against mine.

"Happy birthday." He whispered.

"That was yesterday." I replied, smiling. I giggled as he kissed my eyes, then my temples, my forehead, my jaw, my nose and finally my mouth. I could feel him smiling against my mouth before he pulled away, climbing off the bed. I climbed off after him, taking his hand. I had changed out of my dress last night and had thrown on a pair of Dan's sweat pants and a grey hoodie that were both too big. We both got off the bed and walked downstairs and into the kitchen, where I could see a brunette woman cooking something.

"Morning Daniel." The brunette woman standing at the stove said as Dan and I walked into the kitchen. "Who's your . . . friend?"

"Mum, this is my girlfriend Zoe." Dan said, gesturing to me. "Zo, this is my mother, Maria."

I waved. "Hi."

Maria smiled, her blue eyes glittering with recognition. "So you're the famous Zoe. It's nice to finally put a face to a name."

"Um, thanks." I said awkwardly.

"No problem, sweet." Maria replied. "Pancake?"

I moved forward, snatching a pancake off the plate as Maria turned the stove off and walked out.

"Hey Dan." Said another, much younger female voice as she walked into the kitchen. I turned and tried not to flinch.

"Hi, Zoe." Becky said awkwardly.

"I'm sorry." I whispered softly.

Becky shrugged. "You're not so scary when your eyes aren't orange."

"You're not scared I'll hurt you?" I asked.

Becky shrugged again. "Dan explained about the multiple-personalities-thing."

"How much did he explain, exactly?"

"Just that you've been sick and that when you were yourself, you were really guilty about what you'd done as the other . . . you. I just wanted to thank you, Zoe."

"What for?" I asked, confused.

"If the other you hadn't attacked me, I would have kept with the drugs and ended up in rehab. I guess you kind of scared me out of doing drugs. So thank you."

Then she turned and disappeared out the doorway, leaving me staring after her in disbelief. I felt Dan wrap his arm around my waist and bury his nose in my hair. "See? She's fine?"

"Mmm." I mumbled as finished the half-eaten pancake and moved to lean against the counter, grabbing another pancake.

"What?" Dan asked as he grabbed one for himself and took a bite out of it, leaning on the opposite side of the counter.

"How much did you tell her?" I asked.

"About what?" Dan asked innocently, shoving the last of his pancake into his mouth.

I grimaced. No matter how mature he could be, Dan was still a teenage boy at heart.

"You know what. What did you tell her?" I asked, leaning forward.

"Okay, here's the deal. She thought I had a girlfriend with a million piercings, so I didn't want my parents to know about. So what does she do? She raids my room and instead of finding evidence of a girlfriend with a piercing obsession, she finds my collection of antique spy stuff."

I raised my eyebrows. "So what did you tell her?"

"Nothing really. Just what she needed to know. She's bound to secrecy." Dan said. I nodded and ran my hand through my hair, forgetting that I'd forgotten to wash out the hairspray until my fingers got tangled in the ends. I swore in annoyance and started to untangle my fingers. This only resulted in my fingers becoming even more entangled in my hair.

"Here." Dan said, reaching out. I stopped fiddling with my hair as Dan's fingers brushed mine and he gently started untangling my hair. I kept my gaze fixed on his eyes, a deep ocean blue that never failed to remind me of love, of comfort, of belonging.

"What're you staring at?" Dan asked softly.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you. It's just . . . "

"Becky's not supposed to know about M.I.9." Dan finished. "Look, I get it. I get that if you get booted from M.I.9, for whatever reason, you'd be homeless."

He gave me a reassuring smile as he finished untangling my hair and he pushed my hair away from my face, letting his palm rest on my cheek. "Zoe, if that were to ever happen, you could always stay here."

"Always?" I asked softly.

Dan nodded. "Always, Zo. I promise."

Happy tears rolled down my cheeks and Dan wiped them away with his thumb as I whispered, "Thank you."

Dan smiled as his fingers traced my jaw and the side of my neck before they made contact with the chain around my neck. He slid his fingers between my skin and the chain, sliding his fingers across the metal until he found the heart-shaped locket, letting it sit on the ends of his fingers. "I love you, Zo." He said softly. I walked around the counter and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"I love you too, Dan." I whispered against his neck.

"Have KORPS decided that they want my head on a plate right this second yet?" Dan asked as we walked into HQ on Monday morning, when we were supposed to be in History. I tried to block several images out of my mind, but it didn't help. I knew what they would be.

"Sorry." Dan said, squeezing my hand gently.

"It's fine." I replied, playing with the necklace around my neck. I found that even after only two days of owning the piece of jewellery, I had become quite attached to the golden locket, only taking it off when I showered.

"It's not fine because KORPS wanting you head on a plate is no joke, Daniel." Stella said, her eyes narrowing. It was rare for any of us to be scared of Stella. She was around so much and we saw so much of her that we'd taken to teasing her and Frank. That moment was one of those rare instances that I think she scared all four of us.

"So what's happening?" Dan asked, shaking off Stella's steely glare.

"There's a research facility that we believe KORPS are using to develop weapons." Stella said.

"Dan and Zoe; you two go and check it out. Aneisha, you stay here and help Tom."

Aneisha sighed. "Do I have to stay?"

"Yes. This could easily turn very dangerous and it's better to have two searching the facility together than three split up all over. Okay?"

Aneisha reluctantly sighed. "Okay?"

"So what are we posing as?" Dan asked. "Health inspectors? Environmental inspectors? Inspectors-end-of-story?"

"You're not posing as anyone. You're sneaking in." Stella said.

"No offence, but the last time we snuck into anywhere," Dan said, "Zoe ended up inhabiting the consciousness of one of the most evil men ever. And the time before that, we ended up imprisoned."

Stella sighed. "But you're not going to be alone with this. I'll be waiting in a van with Aneisha and five other agents, in case it seems as if things are going to go pear-shaped."

Snickering, Tom pulled out two devices that looked like wrist watches and handed them to us. "Heat sensors."

"These got me into trouble last time we used them." I remarked, eyeing the device sceptically.

"I've modified them so instead of beeping, they vibrate silently when someone's near."

I nodded and slipped it on.

"Okay, you ready?" Dan asked. I nodded and he lifted the window slowly, carefully. He helped me through and then climbed through the window himself, gently closing it behind him. We found ourselves in a room that had three desks inside it. All three had countless sheets of paperwork on top of them, and one desk had three lab coats thrown hastily atop the papers. I grabbed two of the lab coats and passed one to Dan, putting one on myself. I was wearing a blonde wig that reached my shoulders, concealing my bright auburn hair.

Dan picked up a few sheets of paper, quickly reading of them. "It's just postage orders."

"Postage." I mumbled. "What are they posting?"

"Uh . . . Furniture, mostly. Stuff like dressing tables and wardrobes. Why?"

I swore. "You can hide weapons in stuff like that. Easily."

Dan's eyes widened. "Frank said that KORPS was a globalisation."

I nodded. "If they're hiding weapons in that furniture, then we're in trouble. They'd be seriously dangerous weapons. What are the destinations?"

"China, Africa, Japan, Australia, Russia. All over the world, but they're the main ones."

I swore again. "We need to see what's going on here."

Dan nodded as I opened the door, slipping out. Dan followed and we slowly snuck along the corridor, sticking to the shadows until we came to a door. I eased it open and stuck my head in. It was just wardrobes.

Sighing, I closed it and we continued along the corridor until we came to the next door. This time, when I stuck my head in, I could see that it was a large room and that the machines inside were manufacturing something out of the ordinary. I slipped inside and Dan followed. I looked up at the machinery. It was blindingly obvious that they were manufacturing weapons. The machinery in this room was making what looked like some sort of massive gun. Dan took a photo and as we turned to leave, someone walked in. I kicked the KORPS soldier's shoulder and he slammed into the wall, hitting his head on the wall.

He passed out and I hoped that when someone walked in and found him, they would think he had just banged his head on the wall. Growing up at SKUL, I'd amused myself by betting which of my guards would hit his head on the wall and knock himself out.

Smiling, I slipped out after Dan as we moved down another corridor.

"What're you smiling about?" Dan whispered as we crept into another room.

"I'll tell you later." I replied, moving forward. This room too held machinery, but it was a different kind of machinery. A weapon went in one side and a dresser came out the other. I gasped and Dan took about five photos.

"Let's get out of here." Dan said. "This place gives me the creeps."

I nodded in agreement as we walked out the room and started back the way we'd come. "Did you get photos of the postage orders?"

"Yeah and –" He broke off as we heard all-too-familiar voices. Dan looked around frantically and pulled me into the room we'd skipped before, the one that held the wardrobes.

We slipped inside one, the largest of them all. Even though it was the biggest, it still wasn't big enough. There wasn't much of Dan's body that wasn't touching mine and I could feel his breath across my face as he ducked his head so his lips were near my ear as he growled, "I won't let them take you, Zoe. Not again."

I bit back a cry as my heart skipped a beat as the I heard a door open and I felt Dan tense, his body readying for a fight.

"How is she?" I heard Crime Minister ask and I felt Dan's hand over my mouth, muffling any noise I might make.

"She is close to death, Crime Minister." Steinberg's voice replied. "V shall be ready soon."

I exchanged a glance with Dan. What could V be?

"That is all, Dr Steinberg." Crime Minister said. I heard footsteps and then the door opened and then closed again. I peeked through the crack between the doors of the wardrobe as Dan's hand slipped from my mouth. The room was empty.

I slowly pushed one of the wardrobe doors open and stepped out. "Okay, what's V?"

Dan shrugged as he stepped out. "I don't know, but we know it's about someone dying and that helping some grand plot that they've got."

I sighed. "Let's just get out of here. My skin's about to start crawling."

Dan nodded and moved to open the door. He stepped out and I followed.

"Dan." I said, tugging on the back of his shirt. I could see three KORPS agents about a hundred metres away, their backs to us. But all they had to do was turn around and we'd both be in plain sight.

Dan swore softly and looked around. "Okay, we gotta get out of here."

He moved towards a door on the other side of the corridor and pushed it open. I followed, closing the door silently behind me. When I turned around, Dan was looking around frantically. We found ourselves in a bare room, with no windows.

"Empty." Dan groaned quietly.

"No, it's not." I said. I ran my fingers along the walls, searching for anything that shouldn't have been there.

"Zoe, what are you doing?" Dan asked.

"KORPS don't just have empty rooms. They don't know the meaning of the word."

"So?"

"This has got to be a doorway." I said, still running my fingers across the wall.

"Zoe, we don't have time for this!" Dan hissed in a whisper. "There are KORPS guards out there and they could –"

"Come in at any moment." I said. "So are you going to help me find this damn doorway or not?"

Dan sighed but started running his own fingers over the walls. "So what are we looking for?"

"Anything abnormal." I replied. I moved to the next wall and noticed a hole at the bottom of it, just in front of my foot. I got down on my knees and peered inside the hole. I could see something that looked like a handle, buried inside the wall.

"Dan." I whispered. He knelt down beside me as I reached in, pulling on the handle. I scrambled to my feet as the wall swung back as if it were a door, revealing a long, dark and damp tunnel.

"Come on." I said. I took Dan's hand and stepped into the tunnel, ignoring the chill in the air. Once we'd walked about two metres in, the door swung shut behind us. I shivered and Dan squeezed my fingers gently.

"Zoe? Dan? What's happening?" Tom asked through our eyepieces.

"We found a secret tunnel. We'll fill you in when we get out there."

"You might want to hurry." Frank said. "There's been some . . . developments while you were inside and they're not good."


	3. Chapter 3

_"You might want to hurry." Tom said. "There's been some . . . developments while you were inside and they're not good."_

I exchanged a worried glance with Dan and we both started running, tearing through the tunnel as fast as we could.

When we reached the end, we stumbled out in the sunlight, blinking as our eyes adjusted to the bright light. I looked around, searching for the 'developments' Tom had spoken about. I saw Aneisha, Stella and the agents Stella had mentioned gathered around someone lying on the ground. I immediately recognised the auburn hair, the shade an exact replica of my own.

"No." I whispered. "Please no. No!"

I broke away from Dan and scrambled up the small slope, towards the small group. I collapsed on the ground at the girl's side and choked back a sob. It was my sister. It was Kloe.

Immediately, I noticed the blood seeping through the fabric of her shirt that covered her stomach.

"Aneisha, quick!" I cried. "Get an ambulance."

"Don't bother, Zo." Dan said as he sat beside me. "She doesn't have long left."

"Kloe." I moaned, gripping her hand. Kloe opened her eyes slowly and looked at me. "Who - ?"

I suddenly remembered the wig. I tore it from my head, yanking out the hair pins that had pinned my hair to my head underneath the fake hair.

"It's me, Kloe." I whispered. "It's your sister."

"Zoe." Kloe smiled, gripping my hand. "I was hoping I'd be dead by the time you got here."

"Why?" I whimpered. "Why would you do that?"

"Because I don't deserve you as my sister." Kloe replied, her voice weak.

"You do." I whimpered. "Please, just hold on. We can fix this."

Kloe smiled again. "No, you can't. I'm nearly dead. Be happy, Zoe."

"But Kloe . . ." I trailed off, unsure of what I wanted to say.

"I love you, Zoe, my sister." Kloe said softly, closing her eyes.

"I love you, my sister." I whimpered. As tears started rolling down my cheek, I moved my hand so two fingers were pressed to her wrist. When I picked up no pulse, I stood up and ran off, into the forest. I ran, dodging tree trunks and low branches. Finally, my grief over my lost sister overruled my ability to control my legs. I stumbled into a tree trunk and sank to the ground, pulling my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around my legs. I stared at a tree about two metres away and watched in fascination as a white rabbit who could have been Flopsy's twin hopped out from its burrow on the other side of the tree. It stopped and turned its head towards me, trembling slightly. I cocked my head to the side, letting my hair fall across my face as I watched it.

When I straightened my neck, I realised that it had gotten dark. I could barely see my hand in front of my face. The rabbit's head snapped to the side and the Flopsy-lookalike scurried off as I heard the pounding of footsteps. The footsteps stopped about a metre away from and I felt the harsh glare of torch light in the corner of my eye. I turned my head to look at it, squinting to see who had come to find me. I saw Aneisha's back as she yelled, "I found her!"

I turned back to staring at the tree. Flopsy Mark 2 was gone, but an owl had appeared on one of the higher branches. I heard another set of footsteps. "Give me the torch."

I heard the torch being passed from set of hands to the other. "Go back to the others. I'll bring her back." I heard Dan say and then Aneisha's retreating footsteps. Dan sighed and sat beside me. I heard a click and then we were both plunged into darkness.

"Look, I know what you're going through –" Dan started.

"You have no idea what I'm going through." I said harshly. Even in the darkness I saw Dan flinch.

"Tell that to my _dead_ brother." Dan said softly. I started to say something, but stopped as his words sunk in. I turned to look at him.

"I wasn't always the oldest child." Dan said. He stared straight ahead, his voice thick with emotion. "I had a brother. Jamie." He smiled sadly. "He was a year older than me. Me, Jamie and Becks were best friends when we were kids."

"What happened?" I asked.

Dan scowled. "New kid came to town and stole my best friend. Jay went over to the kid's house, never came back."

"Oh, God." I whispered, my hand flying up to cover my mouth.

Dan nodded sadly. "I never even saw his body. When I was recruited by M.I.9, Frank told me that the kid's parents were SKUL agents."

As if a switch had been flicked, I understood him better. I understood his reluctance to trust people until they gave him a reason to think otherwise.

"I was ten and I lost my brother, my best friend." Dan whispered. I took six years off his appearance, layer by layer, until my imagination showed me not a teenage boy, recollecting his brother's death, but a young boy, distraught over the recent loss of his best friend.

"I was so angry that I beat up the kid whose parents had killed Jamie. I knocked the kid out – I thought I'd killed him."

He laughed bitterly – it sounded wrong in my ears. Dan ducked his head, his fingers tearing through his hair. I realised that compared to what Dan had gone through, I was lucky. I'd been able to be there when Kloe died. Dan hadn't. Jamie had been an eleven-year old boy brutally murdered in cold blood by SKUL agents. A chill ran down my spine as I remembered two agents, a man and a woman, carrying a brunette boy past my cell at SKUL when I was about nine or ten. I realised now that the boy I'd seen had to have been Jamie.

"Dan." I whispered. He looked up and I crawled into his lap, one leg on either side of his hips. I kissed him the way he so often kissed me – as hard as I could. I felt his arms wrap around my waist as he kissed me back, his mouth warm against mine and tasting like tears.

"I love you." I whispered between passionate kisses, my nails dragging across the skin of his neck gently.

"My Zoe." Dan growled softly in response as his mouth pressed harder against mine. I tightened my grip on him as I felt his tongue against my lips. I parted my lips and he started exploring my mouth with his tongue.

Sooner than any of us liked, oxygen became an issue. Dan's mouth left mine, his lips trailing across my jaw and my neck. My fingers dug into his shoulders as I struggled to get my breath back. Our bodies were pressed so close together that I was finding it difficult to pull oxygen through my chest. Dan stopped kissing my neck and lifted his head, so his cheek rested against mine.

"We're taking Kloe with us." Dan whispered. "I figured the least she deserved was a proper burial."

I smiled as new tears pricked my eyes. "Thank you."

Dan kissed the side of my head. "I love you."

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and rested my head in the crook of his neck.

"We should get back." Dan said after a while, dipping his head back. I nodded and stood up. Dan took my outstretched hand and used it to help himself up to his feet. He held the torch in one hand and my hand in the other as he led me forward, switching the torch on. Now that it was time to head back, I was glad that Dan had come to find me. When I'd run in, I'd been too upset to pay attention to where I was going. I realised now that I'd run farther than I'd originally thought.

As Dan and I emerged from the forest, I heard someone shout my name. My hand slipped out of Dan's as Aneisha crashed into me, tears slowly rolling down her cheeks. She flung her arms around me and I hugged her tightly. It felt weird. I wanted to cry, but it was as if a door was locked inside me, forcing the tears back. Maybe it was because I barely knew Kloe. Maybe it was because I knew now there were a lot worse ways she could have died.

When Aneisha pulled away, she brushed her tears away and Tom stepped forward, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind.

"I'd be crying so much if I were you." Aneisha said gently.

I shrugged as Dan's fingers found mine again. "I think part of it's because I barely knew Kloe. And part of it's the fact that I've got so much to be happy about."

"Like what?" Frank asked.

"I'm free. I'm not locked up at SKUL, I can go wherever I want. I have my own body again and I have amazing friends and an incredible boyfriend. I think they're pretty good reasons to be happy."

I smiled up at Dan as Aneisha and Tom started chanting; "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!"

Dan placed his free hand on my cheek and gently kissed me. His lips felt soft and warm and I wrapped my arms around his waist.

The next morning, it was the first time I could remember not wanting to go to school. Reluctantly, I pulled my school uniform on and trudged downstairs. I felt like a zombie. I'd managed to cry myself to sleep and now I felt worse than I had last night. I no longer felt the need to cry, but last night I kept seeing a boy who looked like Dan being murdered, again and again. The images made me shudder because they were too much alike the fantasies of Dan's death Mastermind had filled my head with only a month ago.

When I was halfway through breakfast, I heard a knock on the front door and after about a minute, Dan entered the kitchen. He gave me a smile that showed none of his pain from last night. I simply jerked my head in recognition and shovelled more cereal into my mouth.

"How are you, Zo?" Dan asked, sitting down at the table.

I swallowed and sighed, setting down my spoon. "I feel like a zombie. I got zero hours of sleep and I swear I've got Mastermind's evil twin in my head."

"Mastermind is evil." Dan said.

"That's how bad my headache is." I said. Dan smiled sympathetically. "What about dreams?"

I sighed again and stood up, placing my bowl in the sink. I turned around slowly and raised my eyes to meet Dan's gaze. "I kept seeing a kid – he looked like you, but he had brown hair."

"I'm sorry, Zoe. I shouldn't have told you that story."

I shook my head. "It's not your fault. I was being stubborn. I should have listened when you said you knew what I was going through." I told him, sitting back down at the table.

"But you would've already known that, if I'd told you before yesterday. If I'd told you when we first started dating – or even better, when I first decided I could trust you, you wouldn't be having nightmares now, when you're dealing with a whole load of other crap."

I slid my hands over his and ducked my head. "It's not your fault the nightmares affect me so much. That's Mastermind's fault."

Dan's jaw clenched and his blue eyes darkened with barely contained anger. "I still hate him for what he did to you."

"I hate him for what he wanted to do to you." I said. I glanced at the clock and my eyes widened, getting up from my chair. I grabbed my bag and rushed out the door, Dan's pounding footsteps behind me as I ran out on to the footpath, swinging my bag onto my shoulder as I ran. Behind me, Dan laughed as his feet pounded against the cement path. I felt strong arms wrap around my waist, lifting me off the ground and twirling me around. I squealed and laughed as he set me down and we started running again.

"McNab's going to kill us." Dan said as we turned a corner and dodged some old lady's cat that was too stupid to get out the way. We skidded through the gates of St. Heart's, laughing and smiling, in the same moment the bell rang. Dan grinned at me sideways and threw his arm around my shoulders as we walked to home group.

As we walked into class, Mr McNab was doing the roll. He looked up and smiled sarcastically as we entered. "Mr Morgan and Miss London. How kind of you to finally grace us with your presence."

Dan bit back a retort and I tried not to laugh as we took our seats. As I collapsed into my chair, Dan and I exchanged a glance and I erupted into giggles. Melissa, who sat in front of me, looked over her shoulder and glared at me. My smile dropped from my mouth and I stuck my tongue out at her back. Dan made a noise as he struggled not to laugh and McNab exploded at the front of the classroom.

"DANIEL MORGAN AND ZOE LONDON!"

Immediately, our heads snapped up. With most teachers, you knew you were in trouble when they used your last name. With McNab, you knew you were in trouble when he used your first one.

"I wonder how funny you'll find my class when I land you in detention!"

In front of me, Melissa flicked her hair back, obviously under the impression that Dan would wriggle his way out of the detention and leave me alone on Saturday morning. Ever since Dan and I went public with our relationship, Melissa had been doing everything humanly possible to break us up. I imagined Melissa's amused smirk and kicked the back of her chair. I watched, smiling in satisfaction as her chair legs scraped across the floor and Melissa pitched forward in her seat, almost hitting her head on the table.

"I'd find detention hilarious, sir." Dan said. We both knew that no matter what we did, we were still getting detention.

"Sir!" Melissa protested, raising her hand.

"Right!" McNab cried, the vein in his neck pulsing. "I will see you both in detention on Saturday morning. No excuses!"

Dan and I both sighed but smiled at each other.


	4. Chapter 4

**At the moment, I'm the queen of procrastination. I refuse to do my assignments so I'm updating this instead. I'm glad you guys like that bit with Melissa in the last chapter because I had so much fun writing it. Melissa's so much to write for because she can be . . . how shall I put this? She can be so incredibly bitchy. This chapter was so much fun because . . . well, you'll see why.**

At lunch, someone tapped on my shoulder. I spun and raised my eyebrows as I saw Melissa because her wanting to talk to me was about as unpredictable as the truth of my heritage had been. She was shorter than me, so I had to literally look down my nose at the brunette.

"I hope you know about Dan." Melissa said gently, faking that she actually gave a damn about anyone but herself.

"What about Dan?" I asked cautiously.

"That he doesn't actually love you. He's just a really good actor and pities you." Melissa said. I might've believed her, if it wasn't for a few of factors; 1) Melissa was a horrible liar. 2) I knew Dan loved me. I had seen it when Mastermind was in my body and I saw it every second I spent with him. And lastly, after the incident with Steinberg, I'd learned not to believe everything people say to you.

I smiled sweetly at Melissa. "You know what, Melissa?"

"What?" Melissa asked, smiling back.

My smile dropped from my mouth as I spoke. "You're a scheming little bitch and –"

"We'll continue this conversation later." Dan finished as his arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me away from said bitch. "Do you mind if I steal my girlfriend, Melissa?"

"Of course not." Melissa replied, giving Dan a smile that made me want to gag. I rolled my eyes as Dan pulled me away, dragging me inside the school. I trudged after him as we entered the broom cupboard and he pulled on the mop handle. When we exited the elevator, HQ was empty and I stomped forward, like a child having a tantrum. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I was being childish and should at least _try_ and handle the situation like a mature adult, but I pushed it away. I always handled things maturely. I wanted to act like a child for once.

Dan sighed as he followed me in. "What did she say?"

I threw my hands up and turned around. "What hasn't she said? When isn't she glaring at me? When isn't she trying to break us up?"

"Okay, stop for a sec. Remember who you are and tell me what she said to you just now." Dan told me.

I sighed. "Lies. As usual."

Dan raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, fine." I said. "She said that you didn't really love me and that you were only dating me because you pity me."

"Zo, you _know_ that's not true." Dan said, stepping forward.

"Yeah, but . . ."

"What?" Dan asked gently.

"There is a little bit of truth to it." I confessed, looking at the floor. I pushed the sleeve of my jacket up, revealing the stamp of my heritage. I pulled my head up to look at Dan, whose attention was focused on the writing on my arm.

"You shouldn't love me." I said. "And this proves it."

"No, it doesn't." Dan said, sliding his fingers over the marking. "It says who you are. Like a birth certificate on your arm."

"But I hate who I am!" I cried, turning away from him. "I hate this mark."

I scratched at the yellow writing with my nails, half-hoping that it'd actually been paint all this time and I could scratch it off. But it didn't. When it stayed I stopped scratching at the now red skin and screamed in frustration. I was frustrated and angry with the world. I was frustrated that I wasn't normal. I was angry that the world had taken my sister from me. I was angry and frustrated that Melissa wouldn't get over her stupid crush.

_You and Dan didn't have love at first sight_, a voice in the back of my head said. _You used to have a _stupid_ crush on him too._

Angrily, I shoved the voice away from me, gagging it and tying its hands behind its back. I didn't want to listen to reason.

"I don't want to be V95." I whimpered, turning around. "I want to be Zoe London."

"What about later in life? What if you get married?" Dan asked gently, stepping towards me.

"Then I'll change my name." I said softly. "I really hate this mark."

"We could always tattoo over it." Dan said, tracing the letters and numbers absently.

"Uh . . . Dan? As much as I love you, I don't want you giving me homemade tattoos." I said.

Dan laughed. "No, I'm pretty sure that if you get parental consent, you can get a tattoo at sixteen."

I grinned. "Really?"

Dan nodded and I hugged him tightly. "Would you come with me?"

"Of course I will." Dan mumbled.

I smiled and tightened my arms around his neck while he wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Do you want me to talk to Melissa?"

I nodded against his shoulder. "Please do. If I do it, I'll get so frustrated with her that I'll probably murder her."

Dan laughed and I realised that since we'd been together, he'd been a lot happier than I'd ever seen him.

"Thank you, Dan."

"What for?" Dan asked.

"Everything." I replied, pulling back a little so I could see his eyes. They were the same brilliant blue they'd always been, with an underlying happiness that made them even more beautiful. I reached up to kiss him, my hands sliding to rest on his chest. Just before our lips touched, someone came out of the lift.

"Good, Dan, Zoe, you're here." Frank said.

"We're here." Dan said as I pulled away and walked towards the table, Dan behind me.

"So what's this about?" Dan asked. "We were –"

"Doesn't matter how many people know about his place, it's still a public place, Dan." Frank interrupted. Aneisha erupted into giggles and I rolled my eyes.

"What's going on?" Tom asked.

"Has anyone considered what Kloe was actually doing at that facility?" Frank asked.

"I have." Dan said. "When Zoe and I were inside, Steinberg mentioned someone – a female someone – being close to death and mentioned a V."

"So?" Aneisha asked.

"So you think that someone was Kloe and that V is me?" I asked. Dan nodded gravely and the tidal wave of realisation that followed almost knocked me over.

"KORPS . . ." I started, fighting to keep my voice steady. Dan took my hand and I took a deep breath before continuing. ". . . they obviously now know I'm no longer theirs. That I'm no longer Mastermind's perfect match. They no longer want me for Mastermind's consciousness. They want me to die. Painfully. The same goes for anyone I love. The war with KORPS is on a standstill. Right now, they're on an assassination mission. They're not going to stop until the streets run red with my blood, Dan's, Aneisha's, Stella's, Tom's, Frank's and who knows who elses." One by one, I glanced at each person; Dan, Aneisha, Tom, Frank, Stella.

"That's not going to happen." Dan said fiercely, his blue eyes blazing. "I will fight."

"This could turn into a bloodbath, Dan . . ." Stella started.

"I refuse to let them kill her." Dan snapped.

"I refuse to let them take away what I've fought for." I said. "I've beat death twice. I'm fully prepared to cheat it a third time for the people I love."

Stella nodded. "Don't go looking for them. If Zoe is right and they do want us all dead, they'll come looking for us. And we'll be ready."

The first part of preparing was, surprisingly, to go back to class. We all protested, saying that we needed to start preparing, but Frank and Stella insisted. So Dan and I went off to Maths while Aneisha and Tom had their study period. Myself, I couldn't keep my mind away from what I'd been told. I'd taken comfort in the fact that Kloe wasn't murdered in cold blood like Jamie. Now I felt stupid. Kloe had been found dying outside a KORPS facility. Of course she was murdered in cold blood. Then, nightmarish imagery began to seep back into my mind. I saw Mastermind's illusions all over again – tying Dan to a table and stabbing him over and over. I had found out during my time of sharing a mind with the head of KORPS that he had an obsession with knifes. He'd tried to kill Becky with one. He'd dreamed of killing Dan with one.

"Hey."

I pushed the horrific imagery away and turned to look at Dan, grateful for the distraction he offered that maths failed to deliver.

"You okay?" Dan asked.

I shook my head, swallowing past the lump in my throat. "If anything happens, Dan, I swear . . ."

"Nothing's going to happen." Dan said. He reached up and cupped my cheek. "KORPS will eventually realise that now you're just like any other agent."

"So we've just got to stay alive until then." I said. Dan nodded and brushed a few stray strands of hair away from my face. "Zoe, I almost lost you once. I can't . . ." He broke off, his eyes lowering to look at the table.

"Hey." I said, grabbing his free hand and squeezing it gently. "We'll be each other's strength."

Dan looked up and I could see that that brought a smile to his face.

"What?" I asked.

Dan shook his head as his slipped from cheek to rest over my hands. "Nothing. It's something Tom told me when you had your . . . visitor." Dan said softly, wording it carefully because we were in a crowded classroom.

"What was it?" I pressed.

"He told me that I was your strength; the only reason that you hadn't gone insane." Dan told me gently, his blue eyes searching my green ones.

I smiled. "You were, Dan. You still are."

Dan smiled and leaned forward, his mouth nearing mine.

"Morgan! London!" McNab snarled. "Ten centimetre rule!"

Dan sighed in frustration, letting his head fall forward. I laughed and ran my fingers through his blonde hair. He looked up and smiled at me. "I need to go have a chat with our _dear_ friend Melissa." He said sarcastically, getting up and walking away. I smiled and turned back to my work. The discussion with Dan had left my mind clearer, happier. The horrific images had disappeared, leaving only happy memories of me and Dan in its wake.


	5. Chapter 5

**, so someone wanted me to put the conversation between Dan and Melissa in this chapter. I tried, I really, really did, but I just couldn't make it work. I did put in the outcome of the discussion, so at least you get that. Anyway, I'll shut up and let you read chapter 5.**

"So how did your chat with Melissa go?" I asked Dan after school.

Dan groaned. "Horribly."

"How bad was it?" I asked.

"She called me an arsehole and slapped me across the face." Dan replied.

I laughed and squeezed his fingers, wound loosely around mine. "So that's what I heard. Maybe she'll hate you now."

"I hope she does." Dan said.

I smiled but I it slipped from my face and I stopped walking as I heard footsteps behind us. Dan stopped, glancing at me. I stretched out with all of my senses and whirled around, my hand slipping free of Dan's. Dan turned, bringing his fists up. Obviously, he trusted my instincts. The two guys who'd been following us stopped and gave each other a cocky smile. They both were much taller and bulkier than Dan and I and they were obviously KORPS agents. They obviously thought that Crime Minister and Mastermind were idiots for wanting me and Dan dead. They obviously thought we were no threat at all.

One of them lunged forward, trying to grab me. I dodged and Dan slammed his foot into the guy's side. He fell to the ground as the other guy lunged at Dan, his fists raised. Dan blocked his punch as the other guy got up, moving toward me. He tried to punch me, but I bent backwards, so his hand passed through the air my torso had previously occupied. I grabbed his wrist and used it to pull myself up, bending his arm around, behind his back and pushing him away from me, so he stumbled into the pavement. I heard Dan kick the other KORPS agent away from him, but then they both lunged at him. Dan battled them both and I moved toward them, aiming a kick at one of the agent's lower back, but Dan's voice stopped me.

"Zoe!" He cried. "Go! Call Frank! Just don't stay here."

"They kill you!" I protested.

"No, they won't. As long as you're alive, they won't kill me." Dan responded.

I glanced between Dan and the two guys he was fighting. The odds seemed impossible.

"Zoe, go!" Dan yelled.

I kicked one of the guys in the back before I turned and ran down the street, pulling out my pencil as I ran. "Frank!"

"Zoe, what's wrong?" Frank asked.

"There were these two KORPS agents, they're massive. They attacked me and Dan. Dan told me to get out of there, but you have to help him, Frank, he'll die. They're _huge._" I said.

Frank swore. "Okay, we'll be there. Where is he?"

I told him.

"Zoe, go home." Frank told me and then he hung up. I shoved my pencil back into my pocket as I continued to run, my feet pounding like the beat of getaway music against the footpath.

"Zoe!" My foster mother, Jane, cried as I appeared.

"We heard what happened." Cam said as he followed his wife out. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. "I'm fine. Have you heard about Dan?"

Jane shook her head sadly. "We haven't. Frank said he'll bring him around once he's dealt with the KORPS agents."

I nodded, tears building in my eyes.

"Oh, sweetie." Jane said. She hugged me tightly and I cried softly into her shoulder.

"It'll be okay." Cam said gently. I didn't answer because I knew if I did, I would start yelling. So I kept my mouth shut because Cam and Jane had done nothing so they deserved to be yelled at. Instead, I reached up and touched the locket dangling from my neck and my tears slowed.

Sniffling, I pulled away from Jane as I heard a car pull up. I spun, wiping my eyes as I saw the familiar black van. The side door slid aside and Dan stumbled out. He was bruised and bloody, but at least he was alive. I moved forward and Dan pulled me into his arms, burying his face in my shoulder.

"You okay?" He mumbled, his voice muffled by my hair.

"I'm fine." I said and hugged him tighter. Dan flinched and I pulled away, glancing at him in worry. I could see a big cut on his forehead. I cursed KORPS and their unusual obsession with knives.

"We've gotta get you bandaged up." I said. I tugged him inside and he stumbled after me, almost tripping on the front steps. I took him into the living room and he sat on the couch.

"Stay here." I said and then walked into the kitchen, searching the cupboards for the first aid kit.

"What's going on?" Lucas, my foster brother, asked as he walked in. He was seventeen and his parents were killed while infiltrating SKUL about two years ago, when he was fifteen. Unlike me, he had no desire to become an agent. He wanted a normal life.

I made a small sound of triumph as I found the first aid kit. "Dan and I were attacked on our way home by some KORPS agents. Dan made me go, but he stayed and got hurt."

I turned around to look at him, regarding his height. He was the same height as Dan and had black hair that touched his chin. Jane was forever telling him to cut it, but Lucas always refused to. To keep her happy, he washed it every few days.

"Can Dan borrow some of your clothes?" I asked. "You two are about the same size."

Lucas nodded and disappeared through the kitchen door. I grabbed the first aid kit and walked back into the living room. Dan was back on his feet, running one hand over the black piano sitting in one corner of the room. He looked up as I walked in. "Who plays?"

"People." I replied, pointing to the couch. Dan sighed and sat on the couch as I assessed the injuries I could see. He had a cut on his forehead and it had bled so much that the tips of his hair had been dyed red. It didn't look that deep, it just looked bad because head wounds bled a lot.

"I thought you might want this too." Lucas said, walking in. He carried a pair of jeans and a grey shirt, along with a bowl of water and a cloth.

I thanked him as he put down the items and left. I wet the cloth and wiped at Dan's forehead. When I'd removed the dried blood from his skin, I squeezed the cloth, watching as the water changed from clear to a pinkish colour. I turned back to Dan and ran my thumb over the wound. It wasn't deep and there wasn't anything more I could do to it to help it heal. Immediately, I wished for the salve Crime Minister had put on my arm when Mastermind stabbed me.

Dan had taken his blazer off and had rolled the sleeves of his shirt up so his arms were visible. They looked as if they had bruises forming, but that was all. I could see parts of his shirt were torn, though.

"Take your shirt off." I said. Despite the fact that he easily could have died only half an hour ago, Dan smirked and started unbuttoning the white material. I rolled my eyes as he shrugged the open shirt of his shoulders, leaving him sitting there shirtless.

I gasped. His chest was muscled, more muscled than I'd expected him to be. There was a long cut from his hip to his stomach I guessed that he'd bruised his ribs from the way he'd flinched when I hugged him. I washed the cut, keeping my eyes locked on his. I pressed against his side a little too hard, causing Dan to hiss in pain.

"Sorry." I apologized, squeezing the blood out of the cloth, turning the water in the bowl from pink to red.

"I always imagined that having you patch me up after a fight would be a little less . . ."

"Painful?" I offered.

Dan nodded. "A little less painful and a lot more sexy."

I rolled my eyes. "Welcome to reality."

Dan smiled as I skimmed my fingers over his ribs gently. "How bad do they hurt?"

Dan shrugged and then made a noise of pain. "It hurts but . . . it's bearable."

"You've probably bruised your ribs." I replied. "Dan, do you realise how scared I was?"

"Zo, I –"

"Dan, you could have died." I said, tears building in my eyes.

"I know. I'm sorry." Dan said. He took me in his arms, holding me to his chest. He kissed my hair, again and again and again and again until I looked up, brushing my tears away. I slid my hand up his arms as he leaned forward, pressing his lips against mine firmly. Because the last thing I wanted to do was to cause him any more pain, I kept my hands in my lap. Dan put one hand on my cheek and tightened his arm around my waist.

When we broke apart, I leaned my forehead against Dan's, slowly opening my eyes. His eyes, that ocean blue that I loved, held more emotion than I'd ever seen. I'd heard, many times, the saying that people wore their heart on their sleeve. I'd even heard a song which mentioned a boy who wore his on his backpack. Dan didn't have to wear his heart. Everything he felt, you saw through his eyes. In that moment, his eyes told me how sorry he really was. I hugged him carefully, avoiding his sore ribs.

"No one got seriously hurt. It's fine." I mumbled against his neck. I felt Dan smile into my hair and I pulled back, picking up the bowl and first aid kit off the floor and walking back into the kitchen. As I tipped the red water down the sink and rinsed out the cloth, Lucas asked; "How is he?"

I yelped and dropped the bowl, turning around to face him. I glared as Lucas burst into laughter at my expression. After a moment or two, I smiled. When Lucas calmed down, I answered his question.

"He'll live. He bruised his ribs and has got cuts on his forehead and across his stomach, but he was lucky. Those guys were massive."

"As in, fat-massive, or . . ."

"Strong-massive." I replied. "He got lucky."

Lucas nodded. "_This_ is part of the reason I want nothing to do with KORPS or M.I.9."

I raised an eyebrow. "We're saving people's lives, Lucas."

"Yeah, but what happens if something happens to you? That would tear both Jane and Cam apart and I know your boyfriend in there wouldn't be able to live with himself."

"_My boyfriend_ has a name."

"No one will tell me what it is." Lucas said as his voice rose. "Zoe, my parents died for M.I.9! I don't want the people who love me to go through the same thing I went through." Lucas yelled.

I glared at him before I walked back into the living room, where Dan had put on Lucas' shirt and jeans and was sitting at the piano, his fingers dancing across the keys.

"What was that about?" Dan asked as I walked in. I shrugged and moved to sit beside him on the piano stool. "Him telling to quit M.I.9 without actually saying it."

I felt Dan's eyes on me and I turned my head to look at him. "I'm not quitting M.I.9. I'm going to do fieldwork until I get too old and then I'll do something at headquarters."

Dan smiled and turned back to the piano. "So, who plays?"

"Lucas does. And I do. Kind of."

"Can you play something for me?"

I shook my head. "Not today, Dan."

I reached up a plucked the photo frame off the top of the piano, bringing it down. Inside rested a photo of me and Lucas at his seventeenth birthday party. I was wearing a simple white dress and Lucas was an almost complete contrast to that in black skinny jeans, a dark grey shirt and a grey beanie. "It's the one thing he's got left from his parents. Everything else he either refuses to have or it was destroyed when SKUL burnt down his house."

I put the photo back up. "I wonder what they're like."

"Who?" Dan asked as I settled back into the seat, running my fingers over the piano keys.

"My siblings." I replied. "I wonder if they're all girls."

"We'll find out." Dan said. "When this assassination thing with KORPS has died down, we'll track down every single one of your siblings. I'll help you and I know that Tom, Neish and Frank will too."

I smiled. "You seem to be making a lot of promises lately."

"Nah, just to you." Dan replied, kissing the top of my head.

"Daniel!" Cam called as he walked in. "Time to take you home. You want to come, Zoe?"

I nodded as Dan and I both got up. Dan grabbed his school pants and blazer and held up his ripped school shirt, an amused grin on his face.

"Will you be alright for uniforms?" I asked.

Dan nodded. "Mum bought like five when I first started at St Heart's. She won't notice a missing shirt."

"Leave it there." Cam said. "I'll throw it out when we get back."

Dan nodded and threw the shirt back onto the couch, shoving the blazer and pants into his school bag and slinging his bag over his shoulder. He slid his fingers through mine as we walked out to the car and Cam got in the driver's seat while Dan and I dived into the backseat. Literally. Dan jumped in first and I leapt in after him. I landed on his legs, my head resting on his hip.

We both burst out laughing as we sat up properly, buckling ourselves in. I rested my head on Dan's shoulder as Cam started the car, pulling out of the driveway and onto the road.

"You sure you're okay, Daniel?" Cam asked.

Dan smiled. "I'll be fine. And please call me Dan. Only my teachers and mother call me Daniel."

Cam smiled. "I suppose we can call you that. After all, when we were told we were getting another foster child, we were told her name was V.9.5.Z.O.E.6. We say hello to her using that name and she tells us that we have to call her Zoe."

"So what happened to those guys?" I asked.

"Frank's arrested them and he's going to take them to M.I.9 for questioning. See what they know." Cam replied. "I don't think he'll get much out of them, though."

Dan nodded as we pulled up outside his house and he unbuckled his seat belt.

"I'll see you tomorrow." He said, kissing me quickly before he got out of the car and walked up the steps. As he walked up, Becky stepped out. She smiled and waved at me and I waved back before unbuckling my seat belt, climbing over the centre console and sliding into the front passenger seat.

"I've told you before not to do that." Cam scolded me as he pulled away from the curb.

"Sorry." I apologized, buckling my seat belt.

"Just stop doing it." Cam replied. "Dan seems like a nice boy."

I smiled. "You don't know the half of it."


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry, sorry, sorry, a million times sorry for the slow update! Our internet ran out and then I had my five-day-long school camp and I've only just gotten back. To make up for it, I'll post 2 or 3 chapters tonight. Enjoy!**

"You were attacked?" Aneisha asked, her eyebrows rising in surprise. She hadn't expected KORPS to start coming after us just yet.

Dan nodded and lifted up his shirt to show them the cut across his stomach. Tom winced. "Didn't that hurt?"

"What do you think?" Dan asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What did you do for a cover story?" Aneisha asked.

"I screwed up while doing parkour." Dan said. It was a good cover – short and sharp, but it wasn't specific, so people would just accept it.

"Guys, focus!" Frank cried. "Tom, you need to learn to fight. We don't have the time to send you off to headquarters for more training, so Dan, you'll be teaching him basic fighting skills."

Dan and Tom both nodded.

"Zoe, did you recognise any of those men from yesterday?"

I thought about it and shook my head. Those two men were as foreign to me as Dan, Tom and Aneisha had been a year ago.

Frank sighed. "They've been interrogated. They won't say anything."

He turned to face the screen as Stella's face filled it. "Anything?"

Stella shook her head. "I'm afraid not. Doesn't matter what we do, they refuse to say a word."

I sighed. We weren't getting anywhere and I wanted to pull my hair out because of it.

"Is there anything we can do?" Aneisha asked.

"At this stage, there's not much. All we know for sure is that KORPS are after Zoe and Dan. They haven't attacked any of us yet, so we can't be sure." Frank replied. "All we can do now is make sure we all stay healthy. Zoe, I want you to teach Aneisha some more advanced stuff. For now, go back to class."

"You really are a piece of work, London." Melissa hissed as she walked up to me. I rolled my eyes as I turned to face her. "What do you want, Melissa?"

"What do I want?" Melissa asked. "I want you to tell me if you have a problem with me and to have the courage that Dan doesn't –" She broke off, staring at something over my shoulder.

"I don't what?" Dan asked from behind me.

Melissa didn't reply. Dan stepped past me, so he was standing between me and Melissa. "You want to talk pieces of work, Albright? Let's talk about you. From day one, you've bullied Zoe, when she's done absolutely nothing to you. And she's put up with it. But I refuse to. Now, you need to get over your crush you've got on me because this has gone on long enough. And I swear, if you bother Zoe again, it'll more than just your ego that'll be bruised."

Melissa glanced at me before she ran off.

"Thank you." I said, hugging Dan as he turned around. I avoided his bruised ribs so I wouldn't hurt him.

"About time you got rid of her." Tom said as he walked up with Aneisha. They were holding hands and I smiled at them. "I don't think she's done yet."

"For now, she is." Dan said.

"Zoe?" Lucas asked, sticking his head around my door.

I looked up from my homework, saw him and glared as I spun my chair around so I was facing him. I was still pissed off at him for his attitude yesterday. "What do you want?"

"I want to apologize." Lucas replied. He stepped inside my room and sighed. "I had no right to try and get you to quit M.I.9. It's your life and I shouldn't have tried to change it. So I'm sorry."

I sighed. "It's fine, Lucas. Just please don't tell me what to do. I'm sixteen, but I grew up in SKUL. I know how to handle myself."

Lucas nodded and smiled as I got up from my seat and hugged him.

"I'm glad you found Dan." Lucas whispered. "I can see how happy he makes you."

I pulled away from him. "If that's your way of saying you approve, then thank you. And either way, I'm glad I found him too."

The next day, we had Kloe's funeral. As I dressed in a black dress, black heels and a long black coat, I remembered how when I was in SKUL, never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I'd have a sister, but then again, I'd never imagined that I would ever fall in love. But never in a million years, did I think I would be attending the funeral for my own sister.

I heard a knock on the front door and I rushed out of my room and down the stairs. I saw Dan in the hallway and he enveloped me in his arms, burying his face in my hair. I cried into his shoulder. I really didn't want to put my sister in the ground. I wanted her alive, with all her faults.

"It's okay. I'm here. It's okay." Dan whispered.

"I don't want to bury her." I whimpered.

"We don't have to go." Dan replied. "We can stay here."

I shook my head and drew away from him, wiping away my tears. "I want to go. It's my last chance to say goodbye."

Dan nodded and kissed me softly. "She's looking over you, Zo. She's your guardian angel."

I smiled and sighed. "We should probably go."

Dan nodded and his arm wrapped around my waist securely.

"You okay?" Aneisha asked after Kloe's funeral. We'd all come back to my house and were currently lounging around lazily in the living room. Dan and I had settled ourselves on the couch, Dan was sitting on one end and I'd swung my body sideways, so my legs were in his lap. Dan had one hand on my calf, his fingers drawing invisible patterns on my skin. Aneisha and Tom were seated on the floor. Well, Tom was. Aneisha was sitting in his lap.

I smiled at Aneisha. "I am. I'm just upset over what could have been."

Dan drew an invisible heart on my leg and I smiled as the heart changed into angel wings and I thought of what he'd told me earlier; "She's your guardian angel."

I wondered if he believed that Jamie, even in death, was his guardian angel; being Dan's big brother, even if he couldn't physically be here with him.

"I'm just annoyed at myself that I didn't go see her after Mastermind was taken out of me. If only I'd known -"

"But you couldn't." Aneisha interrupted.

"There's no way any one could have known. You couldn't have possibly known that you had a month left with her." Dan said. "Every day, I wish I could go back in time and warn Jamie, but at the end of the day, I can't. I know that I can't."

"But I did! In the cupboard, Steinberg said V. He said she was close to death and that V would be ready soon. I should have made the connection." I mumbled, pulling my legs up to my chest. I'd never felt so annoyed with myself.

I looked up as Dan crawled towards me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "Zo, there is nothing you could have done. I couldn't make the connection either."

"Yeah, but you're a guy." I mumbled. I saw Dan smile and he rested his head on my shoulder. I laughed and flicked the top of his head. He turned his head and kissed my jaw.

"Aneisha." Dan mumbled against my skin.

"I didn't say anything!" Aneisha cried.

"Just making sure." Dan replied. I smiled as he pulled his head up, off my shoulder and instead put it in my lap, stretching his legs out so much that they hung out over the end of the couch. I smiled and ran my fingers through his soft hair. Dan grinned up at me but in the back of my mind, I was wondering about KORPS, as I always seemed to be since Dan and I had been attacked by those KORPS soldiers the other day. I wondered what we would have to sacrifice to be safe again. How much would we be willing to sacrifice?

That night, I woke in the middle of the night, my throat sore from screaming. I ran my hand through my hair and sighed as I tried to shake the disturbing images from my mind. Aneisha screaming as a poison that kills slowly and with excruciating pain coursed through her veins. Tom thrashing as he was cut with a knife; on his face, on his neck, shoulders, chest, anywhere imaginable, he was cut. And Dan got the worst of it. He was cut with a knife soaked in the same poison coursing through Aneisha's veins but he was being cut deeper than Tom. At first, he'd screamed and thrashed. Eventually, he'd stopped, his blue eyes staring at his torturer. That made it worse, because he wasn't Dan anymore. He was a shell. And the worst part about it all? I was the one doing it, the one hurting my friends.

I wrapped my arms around myself. I felt sick and more than anything, I wanted Dan there. I wanted to hold him, to hear him promise that everything was fine, that everything would be okay. As much I wanted that, I restrained myself from calling him. Even if I couldn't, he at least deserved his sleep.

"You okay?" I heard. I looked up and saw Lucas standing in the doorway.

I smiled and shook my head. "Nightmares."

Lucas sighed and sat down on the bed. "What was it about?"

I shrugged. "I was killing Aneisha, Tom and . . . Dan. I poisoned Aneisha, I cut Tom and I was cutting Dan with a poisoned knife."

Lucas hugged me. "You wouldn't do that. Especially to Dan."

"But it felt so vivid." I whimpered. Lucas nodded as he pulled away. "Try and get some sleep, Zoe. Think of Dan."

He stood up and started to walk out until I said his name. He turned and waited for me to continue.

"Do you have nightmares about your parents?"

Lucas nodded. "All the time."

Then he walked out, leaving me alone. I touched the locket around my neck and opened it, looking down at the engraved writing and tiny photo. I smiled and closed the locket, laying back down. I imagined that Dan was there, his arms wrapped securely around me. After that, I easily fell asleep.

As I walked into school, I could see Dan leaning against the school gates. He smiled as he saw me and I flung myself into his arms, burying my face in his shoulder. He caught me easily and I felt him smile into my hair.

I felt his fingers combing through my hair as he whispered, "Nightmare?"

I nodded against his shoulder and he held me tighter. Nothing more was said, we just stood there with our arms around each other until the bell rang, signalling the start of school.

All through the day, I was finding it increasingly difficult to stay focused on anything. At about eleven, I gave up on doing any work for the day. I had too much going around in my head for me concentrate on anything for more than five minutes. I was jumpy and longed for a piano to relax myself. In history, I sighed and let my head rest on the table. When I looked up, Melissa was glaring at me over my shoulder.

"Are you alright there?" I asked, annoyed. I was sick of her being a straight-out bitch to me.

Melissa smiled a fake sweet smile. "Just checking on you."

"You know nothing about me." I said to her, my voice low and dangerous.

"Don't I?" Melissa asked. "I know that you're only dating Dan because you're a lost little girl who has no parents and needs some attention and Dan's the only one who will give it to you."

"You don't know anything about us!" I snarled, leaping out of my seat. "You don't know anything about me! If you did, I'm sure you wouldn't be so horrible! How would you like it if I kept bullying you after your sister died?"

As I spoke, I moved towards her. She stumbled out of her chair, her brown eyes wide with fright and sympathy. I felt arms wrap around my waist and I knew immediately that it was Dan. I pushed against him, wriggling to free myself from his grasp. I'd nearly gotten free when the teacher boomed, "WHAT'S GOING ON?"

Dan and I both stopped, turning to face her. Melissa stood with her jaw slack, unable to accept that she was about to get in trouble.

"Mr McNab's office." The teacher growled. When none of us moved, she snarled, "NOW!"

We all moved out of the classroom, walking down the corridor in the direction of McNab's office. When we reached it, Dan knocked on the door before opening it. McNab glared at the three of us as we came in and stood in front of his desk.

"I heard a version of what happened. Care to tell me your version, Melissa?" He asked.

"I've giving Zoe a hard time since she came to the school and I've been getting worse since she and Dan got together." Melissa said miserably. "I lied to try and break them up and I pushed her too far over the edge today. I should have realised that something wasn't right with her this week and backed off."

"Something wasn't right?" McNab echoed, confused.

"My sister died on Monday afternoon." I explained. "We buried her yesterday."

Dan took my hand, squeezing my fingers gently.

"Was that you on Tuesday morning?" McNab asked. Melissa miserably nodded.

"Your detention for Saturday morning is not lifted." McNab said to me and Dan. "But Miss Albright here will join you."

"Daniel, you may go. Melissa, I will talk to you in a minute. Just wait outside."

Melissa walked out with her head down. Dan turned to walk out, looking over his shoulder at me. I nodded and he walked out, shutting the door behind him.

"How did she die? She was a relatively healthy teenager, Zoe." Mr McNab said.

"She was attacked and stabbed." I said. It was the closest to the truth I could give him. If I told him the truth, I'd get myself landed in an institution for the mentally insane.

"Are you okay? We have counsellors."

"I've only known her a few months. I'll be fine. But thanks." I said. I walked out the door and Dan pulled me into his arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck and smiled.

Dan kissed my forehead. "We should probably get to class."


	7. Chapter 7

**I promised another upload, didn't I? Here you go and I hope you like it! :)**

"What's with you?" I asked as I sat beside Aneisha. After school, we'd come to the park so we could start on Tom and Aneisha's training. Dan was getting Tom to throw punches and every few minutes, he would tell him to take his thumb out of his fist.

"Nothing. Just thinking." Aneisha replied.

"About Tom?" I teased.

"Actually, no. About you and Dan."

"What about us?" I asked.

"You two are probably the most unlikely couple I've ever come across in my entire life."

"How?" I asked.

"You're both so different. And I'm not just talking hair colour. I'm talking everything. But it's like . . . like you cancel each other out."

"Cancel each other out?" I sceptically. "We're not a maths lesson."

Aneisha smiled. "No, you're definitely not. But you two shouldn't work, but yet, somehow, you do. I mean, after how he felt about you when you met . . . one would think that he would end up falling in love with you."

I smiled as Tom stopped throwing punches at Dan's palms. Dan rubbed his hands and sighed. "We'll try again later. Once I can feel my hands again."

With that, Dan fell into my lap, turning his head and grinning at me. I laughed and shoved on his back with my hands. "Dan! Get off! You're heavy!"

Dan simply pushed back against me, smirking at me. I sighed and mustered up all my strength and pushed him off me. Aneisha and I both erupted into laughter as we watched Dan roll across the grass. Aneisha and I got up and I started teacher her some simple mauvers I'd learned early in my SKUL training. After about half an hour, it was becoming increasingly obvious that Aneisha's attention span was wearing thin.

"That's enough for now."

Aneisha nodded and flopped on the grass beside Tom. Dan looked up and smiled as I sat in his lap, letting my arm drape across his shoulders. I felt his finger travel up my back and to the back of my neck and his fingers pressed gently to the back of my neck, rubbing all the knots and soreness out of my muscles. I sighed happily and closed my eyes, letting my head fall back onto his shoulder. I heard Dan chuckle and I smiled, but didn't move. "You give good massages."

"Yeah, right. _Massages_." Tom said. I felt Dan's legs move beneath me and then I heard a thump, then Tom's voice, telling Dan to leave him alone because he's a hermit. I bit back a giggle as Dan's fingers resumed their massaging of my neck and he pressed a kiss to my temple.

On Saturday, I woke up feeling like crap. Dan and I had detention with Melissa and McNab – two of my most favourite people in the world (excuse my sarcasm) – when I really would have spent the day preparing for the impending onslaught of KORPS attacks.

I hoped that because Melissa's almost constant picking at me had landed her in detention, she would stop and leave me alone.

"It's not that long." Dan said as he threw his arm around my shoulders.

"I swear you can read minds." I said.

Dan laughed. "Nah, I just know how you think."

I smiled as we walked into the classroom used for detention. Melissa turned and gave me a sympathetic look as I sat down and Dan sat in the chair behind me. McNab fell into the seat behind the desk and started working through the paperwork. I pulled some of the work I'd brought with me and put it onto the desk. I pulled out a pen and opened the book as I felt a shoe against my hip. I slipped my hand down, my fingers pointing towards Dan, sitting behind me. I felt a small piece of paper being pressed into my palm and I closed my fingers around it, pulling my hand back up. In Dan's slightly messy, boyish hand writing, he'd written; _You okay?_

I smiled and wrote back; _I'm fine. Just have other things I'd rather be doing._

I tapped the floor with my toe and passed the note back. I waited until Dan tapped my hip again. I took the note.

_Like what?_

_Training Aneisha and myself. Trying to figure out how to make KORPS not want us all dead. Kissing you._

I passed the note back and seconds later, Dan passed it back.

_Yeah, me too. Except I'd rather be kissing _you_, not myself._

I smiled and suddenly looked up as McNab said; "Albright. London. Morgan. You are free to go."

* * *

When we got out of school, the first thing Dan did was kiss me, long and hard. I wrapped my arms around his neck and smiled into the kiss as his arms wound around my waist, holding me close.

"Come on." Dan said when we broke apart, his hand sliding into mine.

"Where are we going?" I asked as he led me down the street. Dan smiled at me. "Remember what I said about getting you a tattoo?"

"That was serious?"

Dan grinned. "Of course it was serious."

I smiled as we started running, him leading me down countless streets until he stopped and I slammed into his back, laughing. I looked up at the sign and raised an eyebrow. "Uncle Toby's Tattoo Parlour?"

Dan grinned. "He actually _is_ my Uncle Toby."

* * *

When we came out, I looked down at the new tattoo on my arm. It was 'Life' written in cursive, with floral patterning around it. The original yellow lettering on my arm shone between the gaps, but I didn't care. I'd covered up the last piece of evidence of my birthright. I laughed as Dan wrapped his arm around my waist and kissed my temple and I wrapped my own arm around his waist and Dan smiled. "Doesn't that hurt?"

I shrugged. "Not really."

"Maybe I'll get one, see if you're lying." Lucas said, from behind us.

"You will not!" Jane cried, walking beside Lucas.

"You let Zoe get one!" Lucas whined, sounding more like a five-year-old whining about chocolate he couldn't have than a seventeen-year-old teenage boy asking for a tattoo.

"Zoe had a better reason to get one than 'I want a tattoo because they're cool and I want to see if they actually hurt'." Jane retorted.

I laughed and looked over my shoulder at them. "Aww, don't be sad, Lu-lu."

Lucas crossed his arms over his chest and pouted like a small child. "Don't. Call. Me. Lu. Lu."

I laughed as we stopped at Jane's car, parked down the road from the tattoo parlour. She unlocked it and Dan and I climbed in the back. As Jane started the car, Dan pulled my arm so it rested across his leg, his fingers tracing the new tattoo gently.

"Which one do you like better?" I asked. Dan smiled and looked up at me. "This one. Definitely."

I smiled and bumped my shoulder against Dan's.

"You staying tonight, Dan?" Jane asked.

"Do I have to sleep on the couch?"

Jane shrugged. "You two have slept in the same bed before. I think we can trust you two not to do anything rash."

Dan kissed my forehead. "Just let me tell Mum."

He pulled out his phone and I rested my head on his shoulder as his fingers traced the tattoo on my arm. I heard him talking through the phone as he stopped tracing the patterns on my arm, reaching up and twisting a lock of auburn hair around his finger. I smiled as he hung up, shoving his phone back into the pocket of his jeans.

"All good?" I asked, my voice muffled by his shoulder. Dan kissed my forehead and smiled. "Yeah. Everything's fine."

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, I could feel my right arm tingling. Groggy and confused, I sat up, pushing the sleeve of my jumper up so I could see my tattoo. As I moved, Dan's arm slipped down from its place around my waist and I heard him inhale sharply as he woke. I stared at my tattoo as slowly, the realisation hit. My mark. My V.9.5.Z.O.E.6 was gone.

"Zo?" Dan asked, his accent thick with sleep. "What's wrong?"

"It's gone." I replied, turning my head to look at him. "My mark's gone."

Still half asleep, Dan reached out with one hand, catching my wrist gently. He yawned as he looked down. I watched as his eyes widened and he looked up at me. "It's gone."

I smiled and nodded. "I just woke up and it was gone."

Dan grinned and leaned forward, his fingers sliding up my arm as he kissed me. His lips felt soft, soft like the petal of a rose against my lips, soft like the inside of a brand new jumper as I wrapped my arms around his warm neck so the hair at the back of his neck tickled my fingers.

"I love you." He whispered against my mouth.

"I love you too." I whispered back. I felt Dan smile against my mouth before pulling away from my mouth, his kisses moving to my jaw.

"You must really like my jaw." I commented, running my hands through his soft hair.

"It's a very nice jaw." Dan replied. I laughed as he moved his mouth back to mine, kissing me fiercely. I tightened my grip on his neck as he wrapped his arms around me, holding me as close to his chest as he possibly could. He pulled away before things became too out of control, pulling me into his lap and tracing the tattoo on my arm.

"Did it hurt?" Dan asked, his eyes focused on the delicate pattern.

I shook my head. "Not really. But I don't feel pain like you or Aneisha would."

Dan nodded. "Yeah, we figured that out when you cauterized your hand in Utland on that damn laser."

I smiled. The laser hadn't really hurt that much. Despite how much I hated where it came from, I liked the fact that wounds didn't hurt me as much as they should. I was glad that when Tom altered my DNA, I didn't lose that part of myself. It was one of the few things about me I actually liked.

Dan ran his hand through my hair, gently untangling any knots in the auburn strands his fingers found. I thought of the last time he'd done that, in the kitchen of his house the morning after my birthday party.

"You okay?" Dan asked, still brushing my hair with his fingers. I shook my head and he wrapped his arms around me tightly. I snuggled into his warm, safe embrace and tried to tell myself that we'd be fine, as long as I stayed there. But I wasn't naïve anymore and I was never stupid. I couldn't fool myself into thinking that.

"It'll work out all right, Zo." Dan whispered.

"I'm fine." I mumbled against his shoulder. "As long as I don't think."

Dan didn't say anything. He simply held me, as if that action alone could make everything okay.


	8. Chapter 8

**And here's Chapter 8! I hope you like it! :)**

The next week or so went fast, but it was slow at the same time. It was slow because I was constantly on edge. I could feel something coming, but I had no idea what it was. As a result, we all wanted to make sure we kept ourselves fit and ready. I was constantly training with Aneisha and Dan was constantly training with Tom.

If I wasn't training, I was either sleeping or doing schoolwork of some description. I hated that by preparing for the upcoming attack, I was pushing everyone I loved away. It seemed like an unfair deal, that to keep them safe, I had to push them all away. I hated pushing Dan away the most. For a little over a month, we'd been inseparable. Now, it was like having withdrawal from a drug. I didn't want to do this to him, to push him away the way I was and I knew he didn't either. But I had two choices. I could continue the way I was and put in no extra training whatsoever and risk his life. Or I could do train, train, train until I was so tired I could fall over and be with him as much as I wanted when this was all over.

So I trained.

I trained with Aneisha until my feet hurt.

I trained by myself until my hands felt like would snap off.

And then I slept.

I did so much partly to make sure I would be ready when KORPS came. I did it partly so I wouldn't have to think. I found that if I thought about it, the crushing weight of KORPS' threat would squash me, nearly paralysing me with fear. If I kept myself busy, I would be too focused to think about other things and too tired afterwards to worry about anything but sleeping.

But that gave the nightmares no resistance.

After sharing a mind with Mastermind, you would think that that would be the worst nightmare of all and that all my other ones would stop, or at least die down a bit, right?

Wrong.

They got worse. All the thoughts, all the fears that I managed to evade when I was awake manifested into this horrible, terrifying dream that I knew any horror movie fanatic would love. I would wake up several times during the night, sweating and breathing heavily, complete with a desire to hear Dan's voice. But I always forced myself back to sleep because Dan was working hard too and he deserved his sleep. I knew that if I worried him with my dreams, he would sit up half the night stressing over them.

As a result, each day I was becoming more and more tired. I managed to find dreamless sleep in Mr Flatley's classes, but I didn't dare to try in Mr McNab's.

Eventually though, someone had to intervene.

About a week and a half after my vigorous training started, someone pulled me into the broom cupboard. I stumbled in after who I knew was Dan. I knew that this had been coming and that he would be the one to do it.

"This has got to stop, Zo." Dan said, crossing his arms over his chest.

I cocked my head to the side slightly. "What's got to stop?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about."

I didn't reply.

"Zoe, you can't keep going like this!" Dan cried. "You can't keep training all the time. You need sleep."

"I need to be ready for when they come."

"Doesn't matter how much training you do, you're not going to stand a chance against KORPS if you can barely stand."

"I'll just ask the nightmares to piss off, shall I?" I asked sarcastically.

"Nightmares?" Dan asked.

"It's not . . . the training. The training's good. It gives me something to focus on so I can't think. But I can't stop the nightmares. Every night . . . I see them. And when I wake up, I can still see them."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Dan asked as he stepped forward and took me in his arms.

"I didn't want to worry you." I replied, running my fingers up his forearms.

"Zo, you worried me by not telling me." Dan said. I glanced from his eyes to his lips and back again as he leaned down and kissed me softly. I tightened my grip on his arms and closed my eyes, kissing him back so he could feel all my frustration of being with him, but not being able to. Dan responded, one hand resting on my jaw as he moved closer, his other arm tightening around my waist. He pushed me into the door and I kissed back harder, sliding my hands up his arms and across his shoulders. Dan slid his tongue across my bottom lip, causing me to gasp in surprise. I felt Dan smile against my lips as I felt his tongue in my mouth and I dug my fingernails into his shoulder as he started exploring my mouth with his tongue. Dan grunted, his shoulders tensing underneath my hands. It was as if my whole world had shrunk down, so Dan was the only thing that was real. Dan pulled away and moved to start kissing my neck, but I grabbed hold of his head, kissing him fiercely. He responded immediately, his mouth moving against mine with just as much as passion as I kissed him with.

Eventually, we both needed to breathe. Dan pulled away, but only enough that our lips weren't touching anymore. I still had my arms around his neck, and I traced imaginary patterns upon the material of his blazer.

"Zoe." Dan whispered, his fingers tracing patterns of his own on my hip. "Don't do that to me again."

I nodded and rested my head against his shoulder, closing my eyes. "Okay."

"If you have nightmares tonight, call me." Dan said. "I don't give a shit what time it is."

I nodded and I heard the bell ring.

"You've got to be kidding." Dan said. He eased the door open and looked outside quickly, before closing it again and leaning against the far wall.

"What?" I asked and he grinned at me.

"We just made out for a whole lesson." Dan replied.

I smiled and stepped towards him, looking up at him through my eyelashes. "Good or bad thing?"

Dan looked down at me before he placed one hand on my waist and straightened up. "Good. Definitely good."

* * *

I woke up at about three o'clock the next morning, again sweating with an aching throat. My first impulse was to call Dan and my second was to push the first away and go back to sleep.

I almost did that, but then I heard Dan's voice, as if he were right beside me.

_"If you have nightmares tonight, call me. I don't give a shit what time it is."_

I pushed my hair out of my face and picked up my phone, speed-dialling Dan. As I listened to it ring, I thought I could hear a phone ringing outside my bedroom window. Curious, I got up off the bed and walked towards the window. I could see a shape on the tree outside my window, a big one that was gnarled and dying. I squinted as Dan picked up and the shape on the tree moved.

"Hey babe." Dan said. He didn't sound as if he'd just been woken up. "Are you okay?"

"Are you outside my bedroom window, or should I call the cops?" I asked. I watched as the shape on the tree moved forward. The light hit the shadow and I sighed as I saw Dan's unmistakable blonde hair.

I pulled open the window and stepped back and watched as Dan stepped over the windowsill and into my bedroom. I pulled the window shut behind him and turned around, crossing my arms.

"If I recall, the conversation was that I'd call you if I had a nightmare. Not you'd show up at my window _just_ in case I had one." I said.

"I know. But Zo, I _know_ you. And isn't this a lot better than just hearing my voice?" Dan asked.

I nodded and smiled. Dan hugged me tightly and I hid my face in his neck. "Thank you."

"Zo, compared to everything else I'm prepared to do for you, this is simple. Easy." Dan said. I looked up at him and smiled as he kissed my forehead, my cheeks, any part of bare skin on my face he could find.

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and giggled as he found a particularly ticklish spot on my eyebrow. Dan smiled against my skin, his fingertips tracing invisible patterns on my hip.

* * *

"I know he was in your room last night." Lucas said as he walked in while I was eating breakfast the next morning.

"Who?" I asked.

"Dan." Lucas replied. "Zoe, I know you are both responsible but you may want to be careful . . ."

"I am not having this conversation with you." I said. "They put you up to this, didn't they? How much did they pay you?"

"Cam paid me twenty bucks." Lucas replied.

"Look, Dan and I are –"

"Hormonal teenagers." Lucas finished. "Who're in love. And I know Dan would never hurt you and that's not what Cam's worried about. It's the fact that you two might do something and you might regret it."

"Oh my God, can you stop?" I asked. "Thanks for your concern, but I would never regret anything I do with Dan. And that's not your _or_ Cam's business."

"It is our business. I'm practically your brother and Cam and Jane are your legal guardians until you hit eighteen." Lucas said.

"Okay, you've made your point. Tell Cam we'll be careful." I replied.

"Will do." Lucas said and walked out.

"What was that about?" Dan asked as he walked in.

"Telling me to be careful not to do something I'll regret."

"Anything specific?" Dan asked.

"You." I replied as he sat down at the table.

"Me?" Dan asked, his brow creasing. "Oh."

With one glance at his dumfounded expression I burst out laughing and then covered my mouth with my hand, glancing at him over the top of my fingers. Dan smiled. "What?"

"Your face." I replied, smiling. Dan shook his head as I stood up and placed the bowl in the sink.

"I just thought Cam would have spoken to you about that, not Lucas." Dan defended.

"Cam paid him." I replied, sitting back down at the table with Dan. Dan laughed and leaned back in the chair. "What'd you say?"

"Thanks for his concern, but I'd never regret anything I do with you."

"You really believe that." Dan said. I nodded and he reached out, tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear.

"I know that." I replied. Dan smiled, twisting a few strands of my hair around his finger.

"How'd you go after I left last night?" Dan asked.

I smiled. "Best sleep I've had in a week."

Dan nodded, letting go of my hair and trailing his fingers across my jaw before cupping my cheek in his palm. I closed my eyes and shied into his hand, my hand sliding over his warm fingers.

"I love you." I whispered, my eyes opening to look at him.

"I love you too." He whispered, his voice just as soft.

"Zoe! If you're not gone already you should probably get going!" Cam yelled.

I sighed and stood up. "Unfortunately, he's right."

* * *

The next few days were better. I lay off the training a little and allowed myself to - even if it was only for a little while - relax.

But that didn't mean I stopped the extra training altogether. It just meant that I trained harder and with my sessions with Aneisha, I pushed her harder. When she complained about sore muscles, I never failed to give her a lecture on how KORPS wouldn't attack when she was comfortable. They'd attack when they wanted.

So it was better if she was ready with a few sore muscles than completely unprepared with nice, relaxed muscles.

Without fail, that lecture always shut her up about the muscles, but she'd always groan about me being a little too mean than I needed to be. And every time she said that, I shook off the guilt I felt, telling myself I was being nice by being mean.

**Please R&R! **


	9. Chapter 9

About a week after the incident in the broom closet with Dan, we were all called down to HQ during History yet again. We were making a bad habit of not being in that class.

"I think we need to consider the fact that maybe KORPS aren't after all of us." Frank said.

"What? You mean they weren't after us in the first place?" Aneisha asked.

"No, just not after all of us." Stella replied.

"So who?"

"Specifically Dan and Zoe." Frank replied. "They're the only ones that've been attacked."

"But if they want my head on a plate, why not Aneisha's and Tom's?" Dan asked.

"You were the main instigator of getting Mastermind out of Zoe." Stella said.

"But how would they know that?" Dan asked.

"KORPS have eyes _everywhere_!" Tom cried jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. Aneisha burst into giggles and Tom grinned, but the rest of us weren't laughing.

"They do. I can't remember how it all works, but they know things. And it doesn't matter whether they have eyes everywhere. Mastermind saw what I saw, knew what I knew." I said. "I agree. If KORPS wanted all of you, they'd have been after you by now. Frank's right. They just want Dan and me."

I looked at Dan as he wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his head on my shoulder. I squeezed my eyes shut as I remembered something Mastermind had whispered to me before he'd been ripped from my body and I lost consciousness.

_"You're living on borrow time, girl."_

I realised that he was right. I was living on borrowed time. Soon enough, the universe would want its time back.

* * *

I pounded into the punching bag with my feet and fists, even using my knee in my assault of the lump of leather. This wasn't training. Training was controlled, calm and calculated. This beating of the punching bag, it was stress relief. It was taking my anger, my frustration out on something in a way that wouldn't harm anyone.

I heard someone call my name; I ignored them and instead continued to strike the punching bag with various parts of my body as whoever it was continued to call my name until someone grabbed my arms, pining them to my sides as they turned me around. I struggled as I looked into Dan's sapphire eyes, filed with worry. I felt the tension drain from my body as he let go of my arms and he pressed his forehead against mine, taking my face in his hands.

"I'm sorry." He whispered. "I'm so, so sorry."

I didn't answer. I just squeezed my eyes shut and kissed his palm as a single tear escaped through my closed eyelids and trickled down my cheek. When I finally managed to draw in a shaky breath and open my eyes, the sight before me broke my heart. Dan looked so tormented, so guilty that it looked as if he were wearing the weight of the world on his broad shoulders.

It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that he had to suffer for saving me. It wasn't fair that he had gotten dragged into this sick, twisted plot that was my life. It wasn't fair that he would suffer for falling in love with me.

Quickly, I tried to think of someway that I could protect him, so that the full force of KORPS' wrath would be focused on me, so that I'd take the brink of it. But I could only think of one way. And I knew it probably wouldn't work, that all it would do was hurt Dan.

Fingers on my arms pulled me from my reverie, back to Dan's tortured gaze as he traced the tattoo on my arm. I swallowed thickly, twisting my wrist so my fingers caught his. Dan's eyes shifted to my face and I tried to smile, but the action got caught halfway.

"Can I show you something?"

Dan nodded and he followed as I walked inside, leaving the punching bag where it was. I'd put it away later.

I led Dan into the living room, to the piano he'd seen the day we were attacked by the KORPS agents, the day Dan had talked to Melissa, which resulted in him being slapped.

I sat on the piano stool and lifted the key cover as Dan sat beside me, his hands resting in his lap.

"You wanted to see me play." I stated, turning my head to look him in the eye. Dan nodded once and I took a deep breath before I started to play, my fingers dancing across the keys so they played a song I knew so well, because I'd made Lucas sit there with me and listen while I played it, over and over, until I got it perfect. I played the song that I'd memorised, so that I could play it off by heart by now.

As I neared the end of the song and it slowed, I realised that I was crying. As I hit the last note of the song, I reached up and rubbed my wet cheeks with the back of my hand. I felt Dan's fingers slide through mine and I allowed myself to look at him before he pulled me towards him, his arms wrapping around my waist and holding me close. I buried my face in his shoulder as I let myself cry as I thought about how unfair everything was. I thought about how happy I'd been feeling in the past year, since I'd met Dan and Aneisha and Tom and Frank and Stella and since I started working for M.I.9. I thought of how even happier than that I'd been since Dan and I had been together. I didn't want to die.

Maybe when I was imprisoned by SKUL, I wouldn't have minded as much. But now I did mind. Because I had an amazing group of friends. I had so many siblings that I wanted to meet that it made my head hurt. And I had a boyfriend who I loved with every part of my soul. And the last thing I wanted was for harm to come to him. To any of the people I loved.

"It'll be okay." Dan whispered, his breath warm against my ear.

"You can't know that." I replied, my voice muffled by his shoulder.

"I can hope." Dan responded, tightening his arms around me.

* * *

For the rest of the school week, I spent as much time as I could with the people I held dear. I spent hours and hours with Lucas at the piano as he taught me a new song he'd found. Naturally, I loved it. It was beautiful and meaningful.

And I allowed Aneisha to take me shopping, something she'd been begging to do for months. I'd never been shopping, just for the fun of it before, simply because the idea hadn't interested me that much. But I agreed to it because I didn't know how much time I had left. I so badly wanted to believe that I would live through this vendetta KORPS had against Dan and I unscathed, but I wasn't the same naïve girl who Dan, Tom, Aneisha and Frank found in the back of that truck a year ago. I couldn't fool myself into thinking that by some miracle, everything would turn out fine. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do it anymore.

"You okay?" Aneisha asked as she paused while she was going through a bunch of necklaces.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just . . . Thinking."

"And we're here so you don't have time to think." Aneisha replied, turning to look at me. I shrugged and stepped towards the collection of necklaces, sorting through them but not actually seeing them.

"I know, it's just . . ."

"You're worried that something bad's going to happen." Aneisha said. She gave me a gentle smile. "I'm scared, too. I don't want to lose my best friend and I _know_ that Dan would –"

"I don't even want to know how you think Dan would react." I interrupted, a little too harshly.

Aneisha sighed. "The point is, we're all scared. But we're all in this together."

I shot her a grateful look as I noticed a particular necklace. It had a large rose held by a string of fake pearls – they had to be fake, for the price they were.

"So how are you and Dan, aside from all this KORPS stuff?" Aneisha asked softly.

I shrugged as I let the necklace drop from my fingers. "We're okay, I guess."

"You guess?" Aneisha asked, worry flashing in her brown eyes.

"No, it's not like that." I told her. "I'm just . . . I'm so intent, so focused on keeping him safe that I never seem to have any time to spend with him."

Aneisha smiled. "I wish I could say the same about Tom."

"No you don't." I told her seriously.

Aneisha grinned sheepishly. "You're right. I don't."

I smiled, shaking my head. "I assume you and Tom are going good?"

"And why, Miss London, would you make that assumption?"

"Because Dan rang Tom the other day and we could hear you two making out." I told her.

"Were we that loud that you could hear it through the phone?" Aneisha asked.

"Yeah. it probably doesn't help that Dan put the phone on loud speaker." I told her.

Aneisha blushed a dark red that was so dark, it was easily visible through her dark skin tone as she muttered, "Damn. So that's what that beep was."

I laughed and Aneisha shoved me playfully. "Come on, let's go get something to eat. I'm starving."

I grinned at her and Aneisha scoffed. "What happened to you? You used to be innocent."

"Then I met reality." I replied, grinning. Aneisha rolled her eyes as we exited the store and she shoved me again.

"Your boyfriend's a bad influence." Aneisha said.

I laughed. "So first you're complaining that we're not together and now that we are, you're saying he's a bad influence. Sounds legitimate."

Aneisha laughed as we entered the food court. "Actually, it's the opposite. He's really good for you."

I threw my hands up. "Make up your mind, woman!"

Aneisha laughed again. "Okay, what do you want? Or a better question, what haven't you had before?"

I giggled. "Um . . . I haven't had Thai, Chinese, McDonald's or Sushi. Oh, actually, I have had Chinese. Dan made me try it ages ago."

Aneisha smiled. "So Thai or Sushi or Macca's."

I screwed up my nose. "Can we please not have McDonald's? Do you know how much fat is in that stuff?"

"I don't want to know." Aneisha replied. "Zo, just try it."

"Fine. But if I end up fat, I'm blaming you." I replied.

Aneisha smiled as she regarded me with an amused look. "Zo, it would take a lot for you to get fat. Pick a table and I'll go get some food."

I nodded and picked a table, dumping my bag down under it. I pulled out my phone and started going through it. I found a game on there that hadn't been there before. I opened it up and started playing it. The aim was to run from demon monkeys who were trying to kill you because you'd stolen a small, golden totem from their temple. I quickly grew bored of it – it was stupid and pointless. I figured that Lucas had downloaded it to be funny.

"Your McDonald's." Aneisha said, making her voice sound royal and posh.

"What'd you get me?" I asked.

Aneisha passed me a paper bag as she sat down. "Chicken burger with mayonnaise and lettuce and French fries and a chocolate milkshake."

"What'd you get?" I asked as I pulled out the burger and then bit into it.

"Same but I got a cheeseburger and strawberry milkshake."

"Ooh, look at you, all posh; getting a _strawberry_ milkshake." I said, causing Aneisha to laugh. I smiled as I sipped at my milkshake. I could see why McDonalds was so popular. It did taste good, but it didn't change the fact that the fast food chain was outrageously unhealthy.

"Stop screwing your face up and just eat it." Aneisha said. "It won't kill you to eat something fattening for once."

"I do eat unhealthy things." I replied, taking a tentative bite of my burger.

"Oh yeah? When was the last time you had something unhealthy?" Aneisha asked. "I bet it was your birthday, which was a _month_ ago."

I thought back and realised that she was right. The last time I'd eaten anything relatively unhealthy was my birthday party. But was it really only a month ago? It seemed like a million years ago that I was laughing and dancing on the beach with Dan and Aneisha and Tom.

"I rest my case." Aneisha said, leaning back in her chair and smiled. I smiled back and finished my burger, moving onto the chips.

"Don't do that." Aneisha said.

I stopped, looking at her over a French fry that was halfway into my mouth. "What?"

"I told you we were here so you don't have time to think." Aneisha said. "You're thinking again."

"Jesus, you're just as bad as Dan." I said.

"Nah. You're just really easy for me to read."

"Then how does Dan seem to _always_ know what I'm thinking?"

"You want my opinion? I think that Dan knows you better than he knows himself, and that's why he knows how you think." Aneisha replied.

I smiled as I popped a French fry into my mouth.

"You know, pretty soon, time's going to pass at its normal rate and before you know it, you're going to sitting on a front porch somewhere and the pretty boy who'll be sitting beside you isn't going to be so pretty anymore. Dan'll have grey hair and wrinkles and –"

"I'll still love him." I finished.

"Yeah." Aneisha replied. "You'll still love him because you love people for who they are, not what they look like."

"Who the hell do you know this stuff?"

"It's my job to be observant." Aneisha replied. "I'll tell you how I know that what I just said is true; you didn't fall for Dan as soon as you saw him. Sure, you wanted to be friends with him, but that was it. You two didn't start to fall for each other until you got to know each other." Aneisha said. "I dare you; ask Dan about it and he'll probably say the same thing – as soon as he got to know you, he started to fall for you."

I silently promised myself that I would ask him about it.

"And tell me – actually, don't. I don't want to know what you and Dan talk about." Aneisha said.

"Get your head out of the gutter." I told her and kicked her in the shin.

Aneisha snickered and stood up. "You done?"

I nodded and stood up as well, throwing the rest of the McDonald's gladly in the bin.


	10. Chapter 10

**Here's Chapter 10! :) Just saying, these next few chapters are my favourite in the whole story. I hope you guys like them as much as I do! **

"So how did your shopping with Aneisha go the other day?" Dan asked. It was the Friday night after my shopping trip with Aneisha and Dan's parents had gone away for the weekend and Becky had gone to her best friend's for the night. I was lying on the couch in Dan's living room with my head resting his lap as he ran his fingers through my hair.

"It was . . . interesting." I said in reply to his question.

"Interesting?" Dan questioned.

"Yeah. We had quite a few D&M's."

"About what?"

"You, mainly."

"Me?"

"Yeah. Hey, when did you start to like me as – well, more than you like Neish or Tom?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Uh . . . It's hard to think of a time when I didn't like you more than Neish or Tom or I hated you for where you'd grown up." Dan said. "I guess . . . The more I found out about you, the more I realised how wrong I was when we met because I'd found this amazing girl who had this strength that I'd never seen in anyone else and I knew, I could feel that I was falling in love with her."

I smiled up at him. "When did you know that you loved me?"

"You like asking difficult questions tonight, don't you?" Dan asked, smiling.

I grinned and waited patiently for him to answer.

"I can't pinpoint an exact moment. It was somewhere between when Alexis von hell told you Mastermind was your father and I saw you being controlled by Mastermind." Dan said, his voice thick with emotion. He traced the tattoo on my arm and I trembled at his soft, gentle touch. I sat up and turned around, taking his face into my hands. I moved close and kissed him, so soft I wasn't sure that he even felt it. But he did – he kissed me back just as soft, his arms pulling my body into his lap. His lips separated from mine and I giggled before pushing my mouth back up against his, my hands sliding across his neck and shoulders. Dan shifted beneath me, so he was leaning against the back of the couch and my legs slipped forward, so one was on either side of his hips.

"I love you." Dan gasped into my mouth, his arms tightening around my waist and holding me tighter.

When we broke apart, I wrapped my arms around his waist and smiled as I rested my head on his shoulder.

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, I could feel a dull ache in my lower back and I could hear and feel someone breathing down my neck. I turned my head slightly and saw Dan's sleeping face.

My top half was lying across Dan, his arms wrapped around my waist. One of my legs was lying across the leather couch while the other was flopped over the side, tangled with one of Dan's legs.

I carefully untangled myself from him, slipping soundlessly onto the floor and looking up at him. Unlike me, Dan was a deep sleeper. For years, it'd been drilled into me; _'Always be alert. Don't let anything take you by surprise. Always be on guard_.'

As a result, I couldn't sleep soundly. I envied Dan to no end of his ability to sleep like that, but I couldn't do anything about it. So, sighing almost inaudibly, I set to work massaging the sore muscles that I had received as a result of falling asleep not only on the couch, but also on top of Dan. I started with the sore spot behind my knee, kneading the sore muscle gently until it no longer felt sore. Then I started on the back of my neck and I selfishly wished that Dan was awake – he was such a better massagist than I was. But then I shoved the thought away as I finished massaging my neck. I sighed. The last sore muscle was in my lower back – in the one place I couldn't _quite_ reach.

"Here." I heard Dan say. I looked up, my hands still behind my back. I watched as Dan blinked away sleep and slid onto the floor between me and the couch.

"Turn around." Dan said. "I'll do that."

I did as he said, removing my hands from my back and turning around, so I was sitting in the V formed by his open legs. I smiled as he started massaging the knot in my lower back.

"Is that it?" Dan asked gently. I nodded, resting my hand on his calf. "You got it."

Dan rested his head on the back of my shoulder as he continued rubbing with his thumbs at my sore back and I could feel his smile against my back. As he finished massaging my back, he kissed my shoulder and pulled his head up, removing his hands from my back. I twisted my torso so I could see him, one hand moving up to rest on his jaw. Dan smiled and leaned forward, kissing me gently. I kissed back, my eyes closing as I spun around, my arms wrapping around his neck.

For most of the day, we simply watched movies and talked. And kissed, obviously. At about five, I heard a loud thump out the front of the house. I sat up, Dan's hand slipping from my waist.

"What is it?" Dan asked.

"I heard something." I replied, looking out the window.

"It's probably just the dog." Dan replied carelessly.

"I'm still going to go check." I told him. He sighed, but let me go and I moved into the front hall way. On either side of the front door were windows that blurred everything, but you could still see shapes through them. I could see several people through them and I jumped as I heard another thump. A familiar golden retriever came up and nudged my hand with his nose, causing me to jump again. I looked down at him and grabbed his collar, pulling him back into the living room with me.

"Dan?" I whispered, my fingers still wrapped tightly around the dog's collar.

Dan shifted, his head twisting to look at me. "Yeah, babe?"

"Cola's inside." I said. "And there's people _out_side."

Dan shrugged his shoulders. "So Becky's home."

"Dan." I hissed. "There's a least five people out there and _none_ of them are a teenage girl."

Dan swore and almost fell off the couch; he rolled into a crouch and glanced out the window.

"Shit. The attic. Now." Dan hissed, his voice barely above a whisper. He scrambled towards me as I shoved Cola through the doorway, but instead of going into the walkway, we moved quickly up the stairs. Once we were in the upstairs corridor, Dan looked up. I could see a small loop dangling from the ceiling and Dan jumped, grabbed it and pulled it down. I watched as a small staircase slid down from the ceiling. Dan clicked his fingers and Cola immediately started climbing it. I followed after the dog and Dan brought up the rear, pulling the staircase up behind him. I heard Cola whine as we were plunged into darkness and then I heard a click and a light bulb above our heads lit up and then it dimmed.

"You okay?" Dan asked softly, moving towards me.

"I think so."

"They better not break anything, I swear." Dan growled. I turned to look at him as he moved towards an assortment of boxes and started sorting through them.

"What are you looking for?" I asked as I moved towards the window and looked out.

"After Jamie died, Dad was convinced that they were coming for us all. He bought an old shotgun and insisted that Beck and me learned to use it. He got better after about six months, but he still has us use every now and then because you never know when you're going to need it. I never thought I'd actually need it." Dan said with a grin.

"Dan." I said and reached across, my fingertips brushing his arm.

"What is it, Zoe?" Dan asked, moving to stand beside me.

"Becky's home." I said.

Dan swore. "I'll be back."

He turned to walk off, abandoning his search for the shotgun.

"Dan!" I called, my voice dripping with panic. Dan turned and I took a deep breath. "Be careful."

"I will." Dan said. "I love you."

"I love you too." I said as he pushed the staircase down and climbed down it. I left it down, so Becky and Dan wouldn't have any delays when they came up. I turned back towards the window and watched the KORPS soldiers out the front as they stood in front of Becky, blocking her way to the house. I could see that she was yelling at them. I gasped as one soldier punched her in the face and the blonde fell to the ground. I held my breath as Dan appeared and kicked one of the soldiers in the back. The KORPS agent fell and before any of the others could react, Dan pulled Becky to her feet and inside the house. I heard a door slam and then Cola whined from his spot at my side. I rubbed the dog's head and smiled as Cola licked my hand.

"He'll be fine." I said.

I heard the pounding of footsteps and I moved towards the staircase as Becky and Dan scrambled up the small staircase. Once they were through, I pulled the staircase up and turned to Dan. He pulled me towards him, holding me close to his chest. I buried my face in his neck, feeling his heartbeat against the bridge of my nose.

"Okay, what the _hell_ is going on?"

I pulled away from Dan, sitting on the floor beside him.

"Dan, I know we're on a need-to-know basis with this stuff, but when there's, like, twenty guys outside my house and one of them punches me in the face, then my brother comes and saves me and then we have to hide in the attic with his girlfriend and the dog, I think I need to know what's going on."

"Okay, fine." Dan said. "Remember what I told you about Zoe having multiple personalities?"

Becky nodded. "It didn't explain the eyes."

"That's because it wasn't multiple personalities. Not really."

"I'm not following." Becky said suspiciously.

"There were two people living in the one body. Zoe and the leader of a secret criminal organisation named Mastermind. I had Tom make a device that would take Mastermind out of Zoe without hurting her. And now –"

"No, no, no!" Becky interrupted. "You are not dying on me, Daniel! Not after Jamie!"

"I won't. I'll be fine." Dan said.

"I'm finding Dad's gun." Becky said. She stood up and moved towards the boxes and started searching through them. Dan squeezed my fingers as Cola padded over and plopped himself down on Dan's legs. Dan pushed him off with one hand and Cola rolled towards me and lay down at my side, placing his furry head on my knee. I scratched behind the dog's ear as Dan kissed behind my own ear. I heard a thump and I whimpered, twisting my head around.

"They've got into the house." Dan said softly.

"You know if they break Mum's vase, she's going to kill us." Becky said as she found the gun and sat across from Dan and I. She started fiddling with it and Cola whined as Dan stiffened.

"Careful with that, Beck."

Becky glared half-heartedly at Dan. "Relax, Daniel. Dad taught me how to use this old thing too."

"Yeah, but you were never that interested in learning how to use it." Dan said. Becky stuck her tongue out at him as she continued to play with the weapon. We were all silent as we listened to the thumps the KORPS agents made as they searched the house and every time they did, I would jump and Becky would try not to scream and Dan would draw a deep breath while every muscle in his body would stiffened up.

When we heard the creak of the stairs being pulled down, all hell broke loose. We all leapt to our feet and Becky and I both screamed – mine louder and higher than hers. Becky pointed the gun towards the gap in the floorboards where the stairs had been folded up, but her hands shook violently. If she had fired off that gun, there was no telling where the bullet would have gone. She could have shot Dan in the foot or me in the arm or the wall or the KORPS agent trying to get into the attic.

Dan snatched the gun from Becky's grasp, balancing the shotgun on his shoulder and aiming. As I heard someone come up the stairs, Dan fired off the gun. I jumped and covered my mouth so it would muffle my scream as I heard the loud bang of the bullet leaving the barrel of shotgun and bouncing off the stairs.

"Shit!" The KORPS agent snarled as he scrambled off the stairs, yelling about kids with guns who can't aim.

"You missed." Becky said.

"I wasn't aiming for him. I just wanted to scare him." Dan said. "And you sure can talk."

He shook one of his hands and Becky glared.

"They're coming back." I said, peering into the gap. Dan cocked the gun, his finger poised over the trigger.

"Don't point that at me." A familiar voice snarled. Dan relaxed, moving the gun so the barrel was facing the floor.

"Shoot him!" Becky hissed.

"He's not one of them, Beck." Dan said. "She's Zoe's foster brother."

"Nice to meet you." Lucas said as he crawled through the hole. I knelt down and pulled the stairs up after him.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, sitting down between Dan and Becky, across from Lucas.

"I came over to take you home. I didn't expect to have to sneak in because the place is completely overrun." Lucas said with a smile, flicking black hair out of his eyes. Becky watched him intently and I almost rolled my eyes.

"I called M.I.9. They're sending in a SWAT team." Lucas said.

"So all we have to do is wait?" Becky asked.

Lucas nodded. "All we have to do is wait. I'm Lucas, by the way." He said, extending his hand to Becky.

"I'm Rebecca. But you can call me Becky." Becky said, shaking his hand. I looked at Dan and he rolled his sapphire eyes in exasperation.

"Does she do that with most guys she meets?" I whispered.

Dan nodded. "Unfortunately. She's the only fourteen-year-old I know that thinks about the opposite sex all. The damn. Time." Dan said. I giggled and he squeezed my fingers. I heard thumping downstairs and stopped laughing, glancing at the folded stairs in front of us nervously.

Dan picked up the gun, which had been sitting behind him and put it in front of us. "We're safe. I've got perfect aim. I could blow their knees straight off."

"Dan." I groaned. I didn't want the image of him hurting anyone intentionally in my head.

"Sorry." Dan apologized. He put the gun in his lap, but the barrel touched my knee. I shifted away from it because even though the antique weapon and Dan's ability to wield it had probably saved our lives, I still didn't like guns.


	11. Chapter 11

"You're okay." Dan said softly. "It won't hurt you."

I heard Cola whimper as someone pulled the stairs down.

"Up! Away from it!" Dan yelled. We all shot to our feet. Dan and I stood in front of Becky and Lucas, with Cola between us. A big guy, who I was surprised fit through that gap, climbed up and stood in front of us. Cola stepped forward and snarled at him, baring his large teeth. The guy stepped back and while he was distracted with Cola, Dan hit him with the barrel of the gun. The blow wasn't enough to knock him out and he scrambled back down the stairs.

I heard Becky and Lucas breathe out in relief and Cola relaxed, but Dan and I kept our positions.

"Don't think we're off the hook yet." Dan warned. "There's more coming."

And there was. Four guys climbed up, but they weren't as burly as the other guy had been. They were tall, but unease flashed in their eyes. They obviously didn't have too much fighting experience.

Cola displayed his teeth again, but he didn't move from his spot; he just stayed rooted to the spot, his hackles raised as he snarled. Dan and I surged forward, moving as if we shared one mind. We'd fought side by side so many times, we may as well have.

Two of the guys moved to take on Dan while the other two moved towards me. Both of my opponents dove for me, but I leaped between their arms, landing in a roll behind them. Before they could turn around, I grabbed each of their right arms and kicked one of them in the back of the knee. I watched in amusement as they both fell to the floor in a heap. I grabbed a piece of rope and pulled both the guys whose arses I'd kicked in sitting position, so they were back to back. I tied the rope around them and quickly did a makeshift knot. I looked over my shoulder as Dan tied up the two guys he'd defeated and then walked over and tied up my own overpowered foes properly.

"You have got to teach me some of this Boy Scout stuff." I said. Dan grinned at me before we both moved back towards Becky and Lucas.

"Beck, if I give you the gun, can you aim?" Dan asked. Becky nodded and Dan picked up the gun and passed it to her. Becky took it and aimed in practise. This time, the movements her fingers made upon the weapon were precise and smooth and confident.

"Can you fight, Lucas?" Dan asked, turning to the seventeen-year-old.

"Yeah." Was all Lucas said in reply. Dan took a deep breath and turned back around as more KORPS agents poured in through the gap in the floor. This time there was eight.

"There's too many of them." Becky said, gripping the shotgun tightly as Cola started growling again.

Beside me, Dan grinned. "Have a little faith."

Then he and I surged forward again. I roundhouse kicked one, knocking him to the ground and then grabbed one and pushed him into the wall. Another tried to pull my legs out from under me, but that didn't faze me. As I hit the floor, I twisted, pulling my legs free and kicking my attacker in the face.

I heard the grunts of Becky struggling with her own KORPS agent; she didn't have the range and chance to use the gun and every time she tried to hit him with the barrel of the gun, the way Dan had done with the first agent that crawled up here, he blocked.

I snuck up behind him and kicked him in the back and watched as he fell forward. Becky stared at me, her blue eyes wide with fear and underlying adrenaline.

"Nothing like it, is there?" I asked before I spun around in time to block a blow that would have landed on my head. My attacker, who couldn't have been much older than me, grunted as he tried to punch me in the stomach and I caught sight of the yellow writing on his arm.

I gasped and accidentally let my guard down for a second; that was all it took. The guy shoved me back and I groaned as I landed on my back and pulled my legs up to kick him.

"Zoe!" Becky yelled.

I turned towards her voice and saw the gun flying towards me. I caught it and slammed it into my attacker's chin in the same moment that I slammed my feet into his stomach, watching his green eyes widen as he flopped to the side and landed on the floor, unconscious.

"Hey. You okay?" Dan asked as he stepped forward, extending his hand. I took it and he helped me up.

"Yeah." I said. I passed him the gun; I didn't want to have to hold it any longer than I had to. Dan took it and I knelt down beside the last guy I'd knocked out. He had auburn hair, a similar shade to my own.

"Is he . . ." Dan started.

Before he could finish, I grabbed the guy's right arm and pushed his sleeve up, where _'A.8.7.W.I.L.L.3'_ was stamped on to his skin.

"Yeah." I said, dropping his arm and standing up. "He's my brother."

"Zo." Dan moved towards me, but then something banged downstairs.

"You can have your _adorable_ Zan moment later." Becky said, grabbing the gun from Dan and pointing it towards the gap in the floor. I drew in a deep breath and listened as we a heard the unmistakable bang of a door being forced open.

"The SWAT team. It's got to be." Lucas said.

Cola barked as he disappeared down the stairs and we could hear him barking the whole way. Still, no one moved.

"Cola!" Dan called. "Get back here, boy."

We heard Cola whine, but then he came back and padded over to Dan's side, sitting down on Dan's foot. I held my breath and let it go when I saw a familiar face pop through.

"You guys all right?" Stella asked.

Lucas nodded and Becky made a whimpering sound as Stella hauled herself up and into the attic. I heard a thump and I turned towards Becky, lying on the floor. Dan moved towards her, but Lucas beat him to it. He pressed two fingers to Becky's neck and then stood up. "She's fine. It's just the shock, I think."

Dan nodded as Lucas stood up and turned to me. "I take it you want to stay here tonight?"

I nodded as Dan wrapped his arms around me.

"I'll explain everything to Jane and Cam. I'm sure they'll understand." Lucas said.

"Yeah." I said.

Dan glanced at Becky, lying on the floor. "I'll have to carry her."

"No, you won't." Lucas replied. He whistled and Cola padded over, his feathery tail wagging. Lucas pointed to Becky and the dog took the hint. Cola planted each of his front paws on Becky's shoulders and licked her face with his long pink tongue.

Becky spluttered as she woke and groaned as she stared up at Cola with an annoyed look on her face. With a sigh, she heaved Cola off her chest and sat up. "What happened?"

"You passed out." Dan replied. "Go to bed, Beck."

"That's a good idea." Becky said. She started to stand, but she swayed on her feet. Lucas caught her arm to prevent her from falling over. "I'll make sure she gets there."

"And make sure you _sleep_, Rebecca." Dan said as Becky started descending the stairs. Lucas gave Dan a weird look before he climbed down the stairs too. I glanced around. While we'd been talking with Lucas, Stella had dragged the KORPS agents we'd defeated out, with the help of several other M.I.9 agents.

Dan sighed and picked up the shotgun. He walked over to the boxes and placed the shotgun in one and then looked over his shoulder at me as I wrapped my arms around myself.

"Let's get you out of here." Dan said. He took my hand and led me out of the attic. I watched as Dan put the stairs back up and then turned towards me, his blue eyes sparkling with an emotion that was a mix of so many different emotions that I couldn't get a read on how he was feeling. I watched him as he stepped towards me, his arms wrapping around my waist as he kissed me passionately. I kissed back with the same level of passion, my arms wrapping around his neck as he pushed me into the wall. So easily, I could have lost him. And now all I wanted to do was to bind myself to him in every possible way.

"Closer." I whispered between kisses, slipping my hands under his t-shirt.

"Not here." Dan said softly, one of his hands sliding across the wall to find his bedroom door. He finally found it and we tumbled inside. I ended up against the door, with Dan kissing my neck so gently I shouldn't have felt it. But I did; every kiss was sending shockwaves down my spine.

I pulled off Dan's shirt, letting it drop to the floor. The piece of material could have landed in Italy or Paris for all I cared – all that seemed to matter was Dan.

Dan slid his hands across my thighs; picking me up and carrying me over to the bed so he could show me how much he loved me.


	12. Chapter 12

**I'm so, so, so sorry! I completely forgot to update. To make it up to you all amazing readers, I'll post two chapters today, mostly because this one's mostly just a filler chapter. I hope you like it! Please review. :)**

I smiled as I recognised the familiar breathing down my neck and I recalled my activities with Dan the night before.

"Morning." Dan whispered in my ear. I turned around his arms, blinking as the light hit my eyes. Dan twisted, yanking the curtain across.

"Better?" He asked, smiling down at me. I nodded and rested my head on his bare chest, keeping my eyes fixed on his face. Faintly, I could hear Dan's heartbeat as he kissed my forehead.

"Do you regret last night?" Dan asked softly.

I kissed his skin and then lifted my head. "No. I don't. I would never regret that."

Dan looked away. "I wanted our first time to be really special. I was going to rent a hotel room and have lots of rose petals everywhere."

"It was special." I said, pulling myself up so I was eye level with him. "Because it was with you."

Dan smiled softly, pushing the hair away from my face with one hand as he kissed me, softly and gently. When we drew apart, he leaned his forehead against mine, his hand resting on my cheek as he stared into my eyes.

"It's amazing." Dan breathed.

"What is?" I asked.

"I've seen every part of you now and yet your eyes are still my favourite." Dan said. I smiled and blushed, closing my eyes and sliding my hand over his.

"I love you, Zo." Dan whispered. "Don't you ever forget that."

"I love you too, Daniel Morgan. So, so much." I whispered back, opening my eyes to look at him.

As much as we both wanted to just remain in bed all day, we eventually needed food. And soon enough, Lucas would come to take me home. And if Dan and I remained the way we were until Lucas turned up – well, that's an awkward situation I would rather avoid.

Dan dressed in a t-shirt and jeans while I simply grabbed my jeans I'd been wearing the night before and I pulled on a red t-shirt of Dan's.

I could smell bacon cooking as we ventured outside Dan's room and into the kitchen.

"So you're up." Becky said from her place at the stove, where she was cooking bacon and eggs.

"We've been up for hours." Dan replied, moving to sit at the counter. I sat beside him and he took my hand in his, squeezing my fingers gently.

"That's surprising." Becky responded and then turned to Dan. "Oh yeah, you're moving out."

"Says who?" Dan asked.

"Says me." Becky said. "I do _not_ want to go through last night again."

I blushed and hid my face in Dan's shoulder as he wrapped his arm around my waist.

"How loud were we?" I asked, my voice muffled by my shoulder.

"_Without_ imitations." Dan said quickly.

Becky sighed. "Well, it was so loud that I moved into the living room, _downstairs_, but it was as if I hadn't moved at all. Dan, I get the fact that you're going to be . . . doing t_hat_, but can you not do it here? I know Mum and Dad aren't here, but for God's sake, I still am!"

"As if you didn't want to do the same with Lucas." Dan said. I turned my head to see the fourteen-year-old's reaction and both Dan and I started laughing. Becky was staring at her brother, her blue eyes wide in surprise with her mouth hanging open.

"H-how did you know about that?" Becky finally stammered, her eyes returning to their normal size.

"It was impossible not to know." Dan replied. "_'I'm Rebecca, but you can call me Becky_.'" Dan mimicked in a high-pitched voice that was meant to be Becky's.

"I was not that obvious." Becky replied, her cheeks a bright shade of red.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." Becky confirmed stubbornly.

"I can prove you wrong." Dan said. "Zo, can you text Lucas?"

Without a word, I pulled out my phone and texted Lucas; '**DID YOU KNOW BECKY LIKES YOU?'**

I showed Dan the text before I sent it and then I placed the phone on the counter as the message sent. Becky went silent as she focused on cooking the eggs, but when my phone buzzed and started playing 'Hakuna Mutata' from the Lion King, she jumped, almost tipping the bacon in the pan onto herself.

I picked up the phone and opened up Lucas' reply, which was; **'THANK YOU, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS.'**

I showed Dan and he started laughing. I grinned and slid the phone towards Becky, watching in amusement as her jaw dropped. The situation itself wasn't that funny. The part that caused Dan and I so much amusement was that she had believed that she had hidden her crush on Lucas.

"You're an arsehole, Daniel." Becky said, pelting the phone at him. Dan easily caught it before it hit his face and handed it to me. I pushed the phone into my pocket and started tracing the swirling patterns tattooed into my arm as Becky dished up three plates of bacon and eggs.

"So that's the tattoo." Becky said, leaning forward to look at the black ink. I pushed my arm forward as Becky reached out, skimming her fingers over my skin.

"Toby did a really good job with that." Dan said. I smiled at him, but I found myself wondering about my brother who'd helped in the assault the day before. So KORPS still had some of the 'failed' attempts at cloning Mastermind in their custody. How many of them did KORPS have?

I'd seen yesterday that my brother, Will, was fully on KORPS' side; I'd seen the _raw_ bloodlust in his eyes. He'd wanted to see my blood spilled on that floor. And he wanted to be the one to land the lethal blow. I wondered that if KORPS had more of my siblings, whether they were all as corrupt as Will. I hoped that they weren't. But Will's attack had answered one question I'd been pondering since I found out about my numerous siblings. Not all of them were girls.

The image of Will's bloodlust-filled eyes filled my brain and I shuddered, pushing the image away.

"You okay?" Dan asked, pressing a kiss to my temple as Becky slid a plate towards me.

"Yeah." I replied as I started eating, putting bacon in my mouth and swallowing. I could feel Dan's eyes on me and I looked at him and smiled. "Seriously, Dan. I'm fine."

"Okay." Dan said, turning to his own plate and shoving a piece of bacon into his mouth. I smiled and turned back to my own food, shoving a piece of bacon into my own mouth. She must've put something in it, because it tasted better than anything I could cook. Even when I made 2-minute noodles, they tasted like crap.

"This is really good." I told her between mouthfuls.

"You can thank your boyfriend for that." Becky said, nodding towards Dan.

Shocked, I looked at him. "You can cook?"

Dan laughed. "That's kind of sexist, don't you think? And yeah, I can. I taught her because I got sick of having her beg me to make her food all the damn time."

I smiled and bumped my shoulder against his. "I'll have to get you to cook for me sometime."

Dan smiled. "What, so I'm going to do all the cooking?"

"If all of it's as good as this, yeah. You don't want to eat anything I cook."

"How bad is it?" Becky asked.

"I burn pasta. Every time."

Dan burst out laughing and almost choked on his bacon. Becky was trying not to laugh, biting down hard on her lip.

I smiled. "It gets worse."

"How could it be any worse than that?" Becky asked in disbelief.

Dan stopped laughing and I said, "My 2-minute noodles taste burnt."

Dan started laughing again and this time Becky joined in too. I blushed and ducked my head as Dan threw his arm around my shoulders, but he swung his body to the side with more force than was necessary, causing the chair to fly out from under him. I watched as he fell off, landing on the floor with a grin on his face.

"Are you alright, Dan?" Becky asked, leaning over the counter to see.

"I'm fine." Dan told her, pulling himself to his feet and putting the chair up the right way before sitting on it.

"You're an idiot." I told him as I finished the food and passed the plate to Becky.

"Oh, am I?" I heard Dan ask as Becky put the plate on the sink. I turned my head to look at him in time to see him climb off his chair and pull me off mine, wrapping his arms around my waist and swinging me around. I laughed and he let me go suddenly, so the whole room spun. I stepped forward, but I stumbled and fell. I didn't try to move again until the world had righted itself and Dan was helping me to my feet.

"Now who's the idiot?" Dan asked.

I rolled my eyes and jumped on his back as he turned around, wrapping my arms around his neck and hooking my feet around his hips. I kissed his cheek and then leaped off him, moving to stand in front of him. Thinking I was still behind him, he turned. I smirked as he turned to face me, a mischievous glint in his ocean blue eyes. He moved forward, catching me around the waist and pushing me into the wall of the hallway. He kissed my neck gently and I gripped the back of his shirt securely.

"Damn you, Daniel."

Dan smiled against my neck and then lifted his head. "What were you thinking about before – when you shivered?"

"I was wondering about my brother from yesterday. I was just thinking about whether KORPS have more of my siblings. What if they're all corrupt like Will?" I asked, sliding my fingers across the material covering his back and shoulder blades.

"Corrupt?" Dan asked.

"Will wasn't just doing his job – he _wanted_ me dead. He wanted to see my blood. It was like he was sharing a mind with Crime Minister." I told him. Suddenly a thought occurred to me. "Dan, they couldn't do that, could they?"

"Put Crime Minister's consciousness into another body? I doubt it. They'd have to be a perfect clone of their Crime Minister's current body and Will's not even a perfect clone of Mastermind." Dan replied.

I nodded. The idea of anyone going through what I'd gone through – being forced to share a mind with one of the most evil people in existence and holding onto your sanity by a thin, slowly snapping thread – made me sick to my stomach. I wouldn't even wish that experience onto Melissa.

"I still don't understand why Will felt so strongly about wanting me dead." I said.

"I'll never understand anything about KORPS." Dan said and then kissed me softly, one of his hands sliding into my hair. I pushed myself closer to him and Dan's arm tightened around my waist as he deepened the kiss. Our bodies were pressed so close together, it should have been difficult to tell where he ended and I began. But it wasn't. My whole world had shrunk until he consumed all of it and became the only thing that I wanted to concentrate on.

I forced myself to stop before things got too far because as amazing as the night before had been – the feeling of being with him in the most intimate way possible, the way the feeling of his skin against my own had filled my very soul with more love than I'd ever known could exist in the one place – I didn't want to be one those girls that did th that where everyone could see.

I could hear Dan breathing heavily in my ear as he stepped back a little.

"You two are fucking ridiculous." Becky said from her spot in the living room.

"Language!" Dan called, looking over his shoulder at her.

I smiled, hiding my face in his neck as Becky said, "You're not my father! And BTW, no one wants to see that."

"Then don't watch!" Dan retorted, glancing over his shoulder at the young teen.

Becky rolled her eyes and scoffed. "You two are disgusting."

I wasn't really concentrating on what Becky was saying, because Dan was kissing me again until my head spun and he had to hold me upright because if he didn't I would have fallen to the floor at his feet.

* * *

"Did you want to do it?" Lucas cried as he stormed into my room at about nine that night, every one of his facial features blazing with anger.

"Want what, exactly?" I asked as I set my phone down, spinning my chair around to face him.

Lucas crossed his arms over his chest, narrowing his eyes. "Don't play stupid with me. I swear to God, if he hurt you -"

"What, Dan?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"Yes, Dan. If he forced you into anything, I swear -"

"Lucas, listen. Dan never forced me into anything. He didn't hurt me. He would never hurt me." I said, crossing my arms over my own chest.

"Are you sure about that?" Lucas asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Are you suggesting that I don't feel pain? Or that I don't know Dan?" I asked, becoming irritated with him. I respected that he was trying to look out for me, but he'd said himself that Dan wouldn't hurt me.

"You feel pain, there's no doubt about that." Lucas said. "You just have a higher immunity to it. I doubt you'd feel it if he -"

"Get out." I said, cutting him off

"But Zoe . . ." Lucas started.

"No, shut up and get out! You keep trying to control me, tell me what I should and shouldn't do. Well, guess what? You don't! Get out! Get out! Get out!"

Lucas' eyes blazed with anger. "Fine. But if Dan hurts you, don't come running to me. And if KORPS find you, don't expect me to help."

"Fine." I said.

"Fine!" Lucas yelled, storming out and slamming the door behind him. I sighed and covered my face with my hands. My good mood was officially ruined.


	13. Chapter 13

"You okay, Zoe? You look a little upset." Aneisha said as I walked into school the next day.

"It's nothing." I replied as Dan wrapped one arm around my waist and kissed my forehead.

"It's not nothing." Dan murmured.

"I'll tell you later." I mumbled back.

"Well, would you like to tell us why Daniel here is so happy he's practically floating and you're not?" Tom asked.

"I would think that you would be happier after the other night." Dan said, keeping his voice low. I smiled as I felt my happiness returning.

"Oh my God, Zoe!" Aneisha yelled. I blushed a deep red and hid my face in Dan's shoulder. Dan laughed and kissed my hair, his arm tightening around my waist.

"Jesus, Neish. Do you have to be that loud?" Tom asked.

"Sorry." Aneisha mumbled. "But Zoe . . ."

"Is amazing." Dan whispered in my ear, causing me to smile.

* * *

"You were attacked again?" Frank asked, panic rising in his voice. Stella placed her hand on his arm and he calmed a little, but not by much.

Dan nodded. "They stormed the house. Beck and Lucas had to help us fight them off."

"What the hell was Lucas doing there?" Frank asked.

"He came to get me." I said.

Frank sighed. "I swear, I'm not far away from locking you two down here until this whole thing blows over."

"That's actually not a bad idea." Dan said, glancing at me from the corner of his eye.

Frank considered it, glancing at Stella. Stella shrugged and Frank turned back to us.

"Okay. Go get your stuff. Dan, tell your parents that you're going on a school trip for the next two weeks. Zoe, tell Cam and Jane what's going on, they'll need to know."

I nodded. Maybe, this would guarantee our safety. Sure, we'd be hiding, but we would be safe. Dan would be safe.

Aneisha hugged me in a tight embrace that I gladly returned as Stella and Frank walked off. "This'll keep you safe, Zo." Aneisha whispered. I nodded as we drew apart. "It's not me I'm worried about."

"This'll keep Dan safe too. You'll be happy again, Zo. Soon." Aneisha said.

I nodded again, tears building in my eyes. I then felt arms wrap around my waist and Dan whispered in my ear; "You okay?"

I reached up with one hand, my fingers sliding gently across his jaw. "I think so. I'm just . . . sick of being scared. I'm sick of being upset. I just want . . . I want to be happy again, the way we were."

"I know, Zo." Dan whispered. "You want to tell me why you were upset earlier?"

"Lucas and I had another fight." I replied. "He keeps trying to control me."

Dan sighed and kissed my shoulder. "I think he's just stressed. He's worried you won't survive through this."

"I survived SKUL, didn't I?"

"You did." Dan replied. "But KORPS are a lot more different than SKUL. Harsher, crueller. I think because you're in danger, he's being protective about everything. He thinks that if he can get you away from M.I.9, you'll be safe."

"That doesn't explain why he got pissed when he found out that we had sex." I said to him. I felt Dan draw in a deep breath against my back.

"That's just him being brotherly. I'd probably be the same with Beck." Dan said.

I sighed. "Do you think he'll calm down after we're safe?"

Dan nodded against my shoulder. "Just wait. Give it time. It'll be fine."

* * *

That night, Dan and I were supposed to sleep at our own houses and then move our stuff into HQ, where we'd live temporally until KORPS gave up on trying to kill us and decided that I was just a normal agent and not worth sacrificing heaps of their own agents to kill.

We slept in our own beds that night.

But we didn't wake up in them.

When I woke, I was alone. I was lying on a hard, stone floor. I was shivering violently, as I was wearing no jacket and I had a horrible headache. I pulled myself to my feet and glanced around. The room I found myself in was too dark and I couldn't see anything.

I swore under my breath. KORPS had come. They'd got me. I just hoped they hadn't gotten Dan.

I heard footsteps and I whirled towards them, making my head pound and ache more. "Who's there?"

"V95." They said. They sounded vaguely like Dan, but I couldn't be sure.

"Dan?" I asked.

They stepped out and I realised that it wasn't Dan. Because Dan could never wear the expression this monster wore.

"You're not Dan." I said slowly.

He laughed. He looked as if he could be Dan's evil twin. He had Dan's face, except the angles of his jaw were a little sharper than Dan's and he had dark brown hair and green eyes.

"No." He said. "But I'm close."

I gasped in horror. It couldn't be.

"You're Jamie. You're supposed to be dead!"

Jamie cocked his head to the side almost innocently. "Is that what he told you?"

"Jamie, I'm so sorry. If he had known, Dan would have come for you. I know he would."

"No, he wouldn't. He left me! He gave up on me!" Jamie snarled.

"What happened to you?" I asked.

"I stayed at SKUL. I trained and then when the Grand Master was captured, I became Crime Minister's right-hand man."

"You're corrupted." I told him.

"No, you're corrupted, if you love that son of a bitch who I'm ashamed to say is my brother."

"Dan's twice the man you'll ever be." I said.

Jamie started to say something, but someone pulled him back.

"V95." Crime Minister said as she walked forward. "You're quite slippery, you know that?"

"You're a bitch, you know that?" I replied, my hatred for the woman standing in front of me burning through every part of my body.

Crime Minister simply smiled. "I've been told that. Many times. Did you meet your dear, dear brother?"

"I met Will." I said. "I knocked him out."

"With a shotgun, I believe." Crime Minister said. "You know Jamie's connection to your boy-toy and by extension, to you?"

I actually laughed. "You did not just call Dan my boy-toy."

"You will pay for what you did." Crime Minister hissed. "You were created to be inhabited by the Master. Since you refuse to, we will kill you."

"What about Dan?" I asked.

Crime Minister smiled and leaned forward, so her face was level with mine. "Don't you worry, V95. He will suffer too. We will spare him, because his pain over losing you will slowly drive him insane until he cannot live anymore and he takes his own life."

She smirked and started to walk off.

"Who did you lose?" I asked.

Crime Minister turned around, her eyes narrowed. "What did you say?"

"Who did you lose? Did you love him? Or her?" I asked.

Crime Minister slapped me across the face. I didn't see it coming and I fell to the floor in surprise. I touched my cheek and gasped when I saw my fingertips painted red with my own blood. She must've been wearing rings.

"Take V95 to the boy." Crime Minister said as she walked off, her heels clicking against the stone floor.

"My name is Zoe!" I yelled after her.

Jamie grabbed me and pushed me into a corridor. I kept walking until he shoved me into a dark cell, the only light source being a small window high in the wall. A figure was sitting against the wall, their head hanging forward so I couldn't see their face.

I heard the door lock behind me and I heard Jamie's retreating footsteps as I pulled myself to my feet.

"Dan?" I asked the figure against the wall.

The person sitting against the wall lifted their head and I almost cried when Dan's blue eyes locked onto my own. As glad as I was to see him, I couldn't get past the intense guilt and misery in his blue eyes. I didn't know what Jamie had said to him, but it certainly wasn't, "Dan, I missed you so much!"

"He hates me." Dan whimpered. "I'm his brother and he hates me."

"Dan, listen to me." I said, moving forward and sitting beside him. "You never did anything wrong. You were always an incredible brother."

"You never even saw me with him." Dan muttered, glancing at me from the corner of his eye.

"I didn't need to. I know how you are with the people you love. Dan, if you could have known that he was still alive and with SKUL, I know you would've run in there and dragged him out yourself."

"Even at ten years old?" Dan asked.

I nodded. "Even at ten years old."

"Hang on." Dan said. "How'd you know he was at SKUL?"

I averted my gaze. I knew he'd ask this question, as soon as I mentioned Jamie being at SKUL.

As I swallowed, I could feel Dan's gaze burning into the side of my face.

"When I was living at SKUL, when I was about ten, one of the agents carried in a boy covered in blood. It wasn't until you told me about Jamie that I realised who it was." I said, turning to look at him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Dan yelled.

I sighed inwardly. I guess I deserved this. "What difference would it have made?"

I could see Dan having an inner battle of his own; to keep arguing with me or to just give up. Finally, his common sense won out and he let his head fall forward as his fingers raked through his hair. I felt guilty. Finding out Jamie was alive and evil had to be hard enough for him and I wasn't making things any easier.

"I'm sorry." I said. "I should've told you Jamie was at SKUL."

Dan shook his head. "Zo, I should be apologizing to you. You were ten – you couldn't have known whether Jamie was alive or not." He said. He kissed me gently, hesitantly, almost as if he was afraid that I wouldn't kiss him back.

But I did. I always did.

Dan pulled me into his lap without breaking our kiss and I straddled his hips, kissing him back passionately and wrapping my arms around his neck. He made a small noise that I was too distracted to bother to recognise and moved his mouth to my neck.

"We should probably sleep."

"Mm-hm." Dan replied against my neck. I gasped as he started sucking on my neck.

"Is there a bed in here?" I asked.

"Mm-hm." Dan mumbled again.

"Are you even listening?"

"Mm-hm."

"Daniel!" I yelled. Dan pulled his head up and his darkened, intense blue gaze locked onto my own. "Do you really want me to stop, Zoe?"

I groaned and let my head fall back, my hands sliding across his shoulders. "Not really. Fine, just for a little while."

* * *

When I woke up, I could feel fingers tracing my cheek. I opened my eyes and looked up at Dan. He didn't acknowledge that I was awake, he just kept tracing my cheek.

"What happened?" Dan asked finally.

"She punched me."

"Punches don't usually break the skin like that. Bruise yeah. But not . . ." He trailed off, gripping my chin tighter to get a better look at it.

"She had rings on." I told him. Dan sighed and let his fingers drop from my chin, looking down. Before he could say anything, I placed my head on his chest and kissed his shoulder. I felt his fingers slide into my hair and he pressed kiss after kiss upon the auburn strands.

"I swear, I'll kill them. Jamie, Crime Minister, Mastermind." He said. I looked up at him and I felt a chill go down my spine at the look in his eyes. There was something ruthless, something deadly in the blue depths. It darkened his eyes and made him look like Jamie.

"Dan." I said. I slid upwards and pressed a kiss to his jaw, my arms wrapping around his waist. Dan sighed and pulled me close, burying his face in my shoulder.

"Sorry." He mumbled. "I'm just . . . frustrated and pissed off."

I nodded and kissed him softly, my hands sliding up his chest to his face. I felt Dan tremble underneath me and I pulled my legs up, so one was resting on either side of his hips. Dan groaned softly into my mouth, his fingers tightening on my hips.

When we broke apart, I rested my head on Dan's shoulder and he closed his eyes. All his anger seemed to have disappeared, leaving only misery in its place. Dan took a deep, shuddering breath, his fingers playing with a few strands of my hair. I wished that I could do anything to ease his pain. I had no doubt that he was hurting, that knowing that Jamie was alive and the way he was, was causing Dan an unimaginable amount of pain. In turn, it hurt me. The knowledge that he was hurting and that I couldn't do anything about it made my chest feel as if someone had sewed stones into my skin and muscles.


	14. Chapter 14

"I thought he was dead." Dan whimpered. "He's supposed to be dead. As bad as it sounds, I wish that he was because whoever that is, it's not Jamie. It's just a monster wearing his body. It's you and Mastermind all over again."

He swallowed thickly and glanced down at me. His blue eyes were filled with tears and I pressed a soft kiss to his jaw, rubbing his arm comfortingly. Dan kissed my forehead tenderly and I rolled off him, snuggling into his side.

"Don't you love me, brother?" Someone asked from the doorway. Dan's whole body stiffened and his head snapped up to the sound of the voice. I twisted my neck so I could see Jamie was standing in the doorway, Crime Minister at his side.

Dan lifted his top lip. "Hard to love someone who's a monster."

Jamie smirked. "You loved Zoe, even when she was a monster."

"Mastermind was the monster, not her. And I still love Jamie." Dan hissed. "You're not Jamie."

"I wear his body. I use his mind. I think his thoughts. What's the difference?"

"Jamie would never kidnap his own brother." Dan replied.

"I am not Jamie. I am the new, improved version. I am Jamie: version 2.0." Jamie said.

"What are you going to do to us?" I asked. Jamie smirked at me.

"I already told you." Crime Minister said. "Are you really that stupid, V9 – Zoe?"

"You may want to kill me and spare Dan, but he sure doesn't." I told her, jerking my chin towards Jamie. Crime Minister gave me a sarcastic smile and then turned and walked off, leaving Jamie. I found that I was trembling against Dan as Jamie stepped forward, a feral sarcastic snarl upon his mouth.

"Well, well, well. Who thought Master's dear V95 could be capable of loving anybody, let alone my brother."

"Her name is _Zoe_, Jay." Dan said. I twisted my body and sat up. My neck was getting sore and I didn't want to turn my back on Jamie. Dan sat up as well, his eyes fixated on Jamie, who had an expression of pure fury following Dan comment.

"You will not call me that, _Daniel_." Jamie snarled. "You surrendered that right when you left me."

"I didn't leave you!"

"Lies!" Jamie hissed and moved forward, slapping Dan across the face. Dan's head snapped to the side and his blue eyes flickered back up to Jamie. Again, there was that dangerous look in his eye.

"That's it, Daniel." Jamie murmured. "Hate me."

"Dan!" I cried. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my face against his shoulder. "Dan, look at me."

Dan turned to look at me and the ruthlessness left his expression almost immediately. He turned to look at Jamie, his jaw clenched hard. "Get out."

Jamie shrugged and walked out, locking the door behind him.

"Dan." I said, letting my arms drop from his waist, my fingers trailing across his back. Dan let his head fall into his hands and moaned softly. "It's Mastermind all over again."

I slid my fingers into his hair and Dan whimpered, moving his head to my shoulder. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and pressed a kiss to his hair.

"Go to sleep, Dan." I told him, my fingers reaching for his and squeezing them tightly.

"I don't want to leave you alone." Dan said, his voice muffled by my shoulder.

"I survived SKUL on my own. I can survive KORPS without you for a little while."

"KORPS are a lot worse than SKUL." Dan mumbled.

"And you're not going to be any help to anyone if you're tired."

"I hate when you throw my words back at me." Dan grumbled.

"I didn't!"

"You re-worded it." Dan replied, but his eyelids were drooping. It had been a hectic morning.

"Get some sleep, Daniel." I said. Dan mumbled something and slid downwards so he was lying down, his head resting in my lap. I watched his face as he slowly drifted to sleep. His face slowly evened out, the tightness in his jaw released and he looked . . . peaceful. I pushed his hair back from his forehead as he smiled slightly in his sleep, turning his head to the side.

"Zoe . . ." He mumbled softly, his fingers sliding across the bed. He turned his head to the side. "I love you."

"I love you too." I whispered. I kissed his forehead and leaned my back against the wall. I hadn't yet had a chance to process what had happened. If _my_ head was still spinning, I hated to think about what was going on inside Dan's brain.

The fact that Dan had a brother who was dead had been easy for me to accept; it had explained a hell of a lot of the things I didn't understand about him; more specifically, why he was so careful with who he trusted.

I wondered how knowing Jamie was alive would affect Dan. I thought back to what Aneisha had told me.

_"You love people for who they are."_

I looked down at Dan's face as a thought pushed itself into my mind. What if this whole experience changed Dan? Would I still love him then?

Some time later, Dan woke up, his blue eyes flickering up to my face. I must've still looked pretty worried, because he immediately sat up and wrapped his arms around me.

"You okay?" He whispered. I shook my head against his shoulder and tried not to cry.

"No. I'm scared."

"Of Jamie?"

I nodded. "I'm scared that he'll change you and I won't love who you become."

Dan pulled back and took my face in his hands. "I promise, I'm not going anywhere."

He kissed me softly. "Get some sleep. I'll still be me when you wake up."

I smiled and laid down, resting the side of my face on his thigh. Dan watched me for a moment before he lay down beside me, wrapping his arms around my waist. I put my head on his chest and closed my eyes.

"I love you." Dan said. I smiled and snuggled into his side further before I fell asleep.

* * *

When I woke up, I woke up to someone yelling.

". . .a bitch!" Dan yelled.

"You do realise that you just called your own mother a bitch?" Jamie asked, cocking his head to the side. I sat up as Jamie asked how Becky was.

At the mention of his sister, something snapped in Dan. He rose off the bed, every bone and muscle in his body completely rigid.

"If you really cared about Becky, you would've come back. You keep saying how I don't love you anymore, but I think it's actually you who doesn't love me and Beck."

Jamie's expression twisted into something unbelievably cruel. "Get him."

Before any of us could react, a KORPS agent burst into the room and grabbed Dan. Dan darted away, but the KORPS agent had a similar build to those that had attacked Dan and I that first time. And again, Dan didn't stand a chance.

"Dan!" I cried, leaping off the bed, but I couldn't get near him.

Dan struggled, but the KORPS agent pulled Dan into a headlock, tightening his grip the more that Dan struggled, like a rabbit caught in a snare. Realising that he was fighting a losing battle, Dan gave up and glared at the man who held him captive.

Jamie turned and grinned at Dan, who switched the glare to his older brother.

"Ahh, young Daniel." Jamie said, rubbing his hands together. "So naïve, so stupid." Jamie turned to me then. "Unlike you, my dear Zoe."

He stepped closer to me, tracing the shape of my jaw with the tip of his index finger. I averted my eyes to the grey floor as Jamie whispered, "_Belle_."

I shivered. 'Belle' was 'beautiful' in French. I looked up and resisted the urge to glare at Jamie. He was horrible. He was ruthless. He was cruel. But it wasn't really his fault. I could hate him all I wanted, but at the end of the day it wasn't his fault. It was SKUL's.

That didn't change the fact that he wanted to kill Dan. He pretended to be working to Crime Minister's orders, but I knew better. I knew that as soon as he got half a chance, he'd kill Dan. And I couldn't let that happen, no matter what the cost.

Jamie continued to trace my jaw and I glanced at Dan. He was clearly having trouble staying conscious; his breathing was too loud and his eyes were a little too wide.

"Jamie." I said softly, looking up at him through my eyelashes. "Please. Just let us go."

"No."

"What about just Dan?" I asked gently.

"Zoe, no!" Dan yelled and pitched forward. He made an awful choking sound as the KORPS agents tightened his arm around Dan's throat.

Jamie smiled. "No, Zoe. You see, it will be quite amusing to kill my own brother and I don't believe in killing you."

"I thought . . . Other . . . Way . . . 'round." Dan wheezed.

Jamie laughed. "You're funny, Daniel."

"What do you plan on doing with me?" I whimpered, almost afraid to ask. I had a good idea of what he wanted with me.

"It will be a beautiful thing." Jamie said. "To see the tragic end of Romeo while Juliet is forced stay here, keeping him alive only in her heart."

"How did you know about that?"

"The Romeo and Juliet nicknames?" Jamie asked. He reached for my jaw again and his fingers slowly slid down my neck, until they reached the golden locket dangling from my neck. He slid his fingers underneath the chain, tracing the metal until the back of the golden heart was resting on the tips of his fingers. He pried it open and smiled down at the engraved Shakespeare quote.

I shuddered with relief when he snapped the locket closed and stepped away from me, letting the metal heart slip through his fingers.

"Why would you want to keep me around?" I asked. "I hate KORPS – I'd be no use to you."

"Who said KORPS wanted you alive, Pet?" Jamie asked. I felt tremor of horror slide down my spine as what he'd said sunk in. To make it worse, he moved closer.

Moving to kiss me.

As Jamie's lips made contact with mine, I sunk my teeth into his bottom lip as hard as I could.

As Jamie's blood filled my mouth, I slammed my knee into his stomach and released his lip. Jamie stumbled back and fell onto his back. I spit out his blood onto the stone floor and wiped my mouth.

"You little bitch!" Jamie yelled. He picked himself off the floor as he wiped his mouth and moved to punch me. I dodged and kicked him in the stomach. I watched as he slid across the floor, only stopping when he hit the wall.

I heard someone yell and I turned as the KORPS agent who had Dan let him go and moved towards me. Amateur. First rule of attacking someone: don't yell out.

I dodged his attack and Dan slipped behind him. The guy aimed a punch and I dodged as Dan's fingers slipped into the junction between the agent's shoulder and his neck and the agent dropped to the floor.

Dan gave me a small smile, but the action was lost as we heard Jamie get to his feet. Jamie looked furious, but when he spoke, his voice was even. It would have been less terrifying if he'd yelled.

"She was pure, Daniel, and you ruined her."

Dan shrugged. "You left out one vital fact."

"What's that?" Jamie asked.

"She'll never be yours." Dan hissed. He struck out with his fist, catching Jamie on the cheek. Jamie stumbled back, his hand flying to his face.

"Then who's is she?" Jamie asked, kicking Dan in the stomach. Dan grunted and swung out with his arm; his hand caught Jamie's temple.

"Mine." Dan hissed and slammed Jamie into the wall. Jamie slid to the ground and remained there as he grinned madly up at Dan. "Maybe I'll let you live, Daniel."

Dan glanced back at me and I heard footsteps.

"Dan . . ." I said. Dan turned and I grabbed his arm, pulling him out of Jamie's arm's length. Dan's eyes flickered around the room and he moved so his back was pressed against mine so between us, we could see all around the room.

And we would need it, because about five KORPS agents came in, their faces hard masks of cruelty. They surrounded us and I noticed two, a guy and a girl, not too much older than I was that had striking auburn hair and green eyes. Immediately, I knew they were my brother and my sister.

Suddenly Jamie's insane laughter stopped. "Grab the girl."

All at once, all five of them surged forward. We tried to fight them, but there were too many for us to fight in such a confined space. The girl who I noticed before moved forward. She tried to punch me, but I dodged. But I'd forgotten about the boy.

As a dodged my sister's attack, my brother wrapped his arms around me, trapping my arms to my sides. I wriggled and squirmed, but I couldn't get myself free. As he dragged me over to Jamie, I noticed the writing on his arm. The numbers were a blur, but I immediately noticed the name in his code.

_Alexander._

I struggled more as we neared Jamie and the girl, walking beside Alexander, slammed something into my temple that was way too hard to be her fist. A splitting pain exploded in the side of my head and the room spun.

I needed something to focus on.

I found myself staring at my sister's arm, the bright yellow lettering glittering on her skin. Again, I didn't bother with the numbers and excess letters, but I recognised the name.

_Ivy._

"Enough!" Jamie snarled, his booming voice bouncing off of the walls and echoing around the room. The three agents Dan was fighting immediately stopped, but Dan punched one in the jaw. The agent Dan had punched grabbed his shoulder and another grabbed his other shoulder. Dan grunted as he struggled, pushing against them, but they held their ground.

Alexander dropped me roughly and I scrambled to my feet as soon as I landed in a heap on the floor. Jamie smiled sadly and stepped towards me, his fingers again tracing the shape of my jaw. "Such a shame. You're such a pretty thing. You were so pure. It's such a shame."

He turned to Dan, still held back by the two KORPS agents. "And now, Daniel, you are going to kill her."

Dan's blue eyes flickered to me and then back to Jamie. "No. I won't do it."

"Well, she's going to die either way." Jamie replied, smirking at him. He produced two items, a knife and a small handgun.

"Let him go." Jamie ordered and the KORPS agents released Dan, leaving him staring into Jamie's palms. "Make your choice."

Dan looked at me again and I swallowed. "Will you leave him alone? If he kills me?"

"If he kills you, he will live. I will let him go and he'll never see me again." Jamie said. "But if I kill you, I'll kill you both."

Dan looked at me. I could see the indecision written all over his face.

"Dan, kill me." I said. "If any of us deserves to live, you do. I wasn't even born – I shouldn't be alive. Kill me."

Dan shook his head. "No, I won't. I won't do it."

"Dan, what about Becky? What would she do if she lost you?" I asked.

Dan swallowed and took the gun from Jamie. He stepped towards me until he was standing in front of me, the gun held loosely in his right hand.

"Do it." I said and squeezed my eyes shut. I didn't want his face to be the last thing I saw when he killed me.

I heard a gunshot and I waited for the pain. But it didn't come.

I heard someone groan in pain and then I heard Dan's voice, angrier than I'd ever heard him.

_"DID YOU REALLY THINK I'D KILL HER?!"_

I opened my eyes and gasped. Dan's back was to me and Jamie was on the floor, clutching at his calf as he moaned in pain. Jamie's gaze flickered up to Dan, green eyes filled with pain and fear.

"You sadistic son of a bitch." Dan growled. "You obviously know nothing about me so I'll tell you vital thing; I _never_ kill the people I love."

The KORPS agents in the room, who'd been watching, frozen, as they processed what was happening, suddenly unfroze. Ivy and Alexander moved forward and grabbed my arms. I thrashed against them as someone who wasn't Dan yelled my name. I twisted my head in time to see Lucas knock both Ivy and Alex out. I landed shakily on my feet and turned to face him.

"I thought if KORPS came after me, I wasn't supposed to expect your help." I told him.

Lucas grinned. "I told you not to expect it, not that you wouldn't get it."

I watched as Aneisha and Frank moved forwards, helping Dan knock out the other three KORPS agents.

"We missed all the fun." Stella remarked as she and Tom entered.

"Let's get out of here." Lucas said. "This place gives me the creeps."

"Hang on." Dan said. "We have to take him with us." He said, pointing to Jamie.

"Dan, that's not. . ." Frank trailed off and Dan nodded.

"This is Jamie, my brother. He's evil and cruel and needs to be locked up."

Frank nodded and snapped handcuffs onto Jamie's wrists before hauling him to his feet. "He's got a bullet wound."

"So? He can walk." Dan replied.

"Dan. . ." Aneisha started.

"He tried to make me kill Zo so I shot him in the leg. He can walk on it. Let him feel the pain." Dan said.

Frank gave Dan a worried look but he walked out, pushing Jamie in front of him. Dan looked down at the gun in his hands and let it slip out of his fingers, watching as it cluttered to the stone floor.

I gently took Dan's hand, giving his fingers a firm squeeze.

"Let's get out of here." I said and tugged him along after Jamie, Frank, Stella, Aneisha, Tom and Lucas. We walked through countless stone corridors that all seemed the same now, but if I was playing close attention, I would've been able to pick the differences.

Finally we reached one that had a door at the end of it. I gladly stumbled out into the sunlight, Dan trailing after me. Jamie collapsed on the ground, nursing his wounded leg with his handcuffed hands. Tom wrapped his arms around Aneisha tightly and Lucas walked off with Stella and Frank to organise transport.

"Zo." Dan breathed and he pulled me towards him, wrapping his arms around me tightly and dropping his head onto my shoulder. I could feel him shaking and I ran my fingers through his hair.

"It's okay. It's over. It's over."

And it was okay.

Until I felt something being stabbed into the back of my thigh.

I whimpered and reached for the back of my leg, pulling away from Dan slightly. I brought my hand back up and immediately slid it back to my leg because my fingers were smeared with blood.

I'd forgotten about Jamie's knife.

I'd forgotten that Jamie was behind me.

I'd forgotten that he had the potential to kill me.

My legs trembled and Dan tightened his grip on me, slowly lowering me to ground. He swore when he saw my bloody leg and immediately stripped off his jacket. He tied it around my leg as Aneisha and Tom came over.

"What happened?" Tom asked.

"Son of a bitch over there stabbed her. Tom, get an ambulance. Neish, find that damned knife of his. We don't want anyone else to get hurt."

"What is going on over here?" Stella asked.

"Zoe!" Lucas yelled, running over and crouching at my side.

Dan quickly told him what had happened and then he turned to me, his eyes filled with tears. "I can't stop the bleeding."

"The ambulance is coming."

"What'd he stab her with?"

"This."

There were too many voices saying too many different things; they needed to stop. God, why wouldn't they just stop?

"Dan . . ." I moaned. I gripped his shoulder and he looked up at me. "Zoe, c'mon. Stay awake. The ambulance will be here soon."

There were black spots dancing across my vision. The darkness kept reaching for me.

"Dan, I –" I started but then I blacked out.

_I love you._

My time alive was up.

The universe wanted its time back.

_"You're living on borrowed time, girl."_

**Mwahahaha! I feel evil. Anyway, please review and tell me what you think! :)**


	15. Chapter 15

**And here's chapter 15! :) Sorry about the cliff hanger from the last chapter, I know I'm evil but I couldn't help myself. This chapter _will _be the last chapter and I won't be writing a sequel to this. I hope I don't disappoint in my ending to _Life _and I want to thank anyone who read or review _Strength _or _Life. _Without your support, _Strength _never would have made it past the first chapter. :)**

I knew that when you died, you saw your life flash before your eyes. After two near-death experiences, I knew that. I knew that quite well. What I didn't expect was the bombardment of emotions that came with it. I didn't expect to see every single moment I'd shared with Aneisha, with Tom, with Frank, with Stella, with Lucas and with Dan. I was flooded with my own emotions and it was so intense that I wanted to drown.

But I couldn't.

Only when I'd calmed down slightly did I realise what it was that was stopping me from dying completely, from letting go of everything I knew.

It was Dan.

I could hear his voice somewhere, telling me that he loved me.

Nothing had changed. I still didn't want to die.

So I fought to find my eyelids, slashing the invisible barriers that stood between Dan and I.

Finally, I found my eyelids and I opened them, glancing around quickly.

In about two seconds, I figured out twothings.

One, I was in a hospital room and two, Dan was sitting in a chair next to my bed.

Dan leaned forward in his chair and I turned to look at him. "Dan, wh – where's Jamie?"

"It's okay. He's in M.I.9 custody. He's locked up. He can't hurt you."

I glanced down at my leg, covered in sheets. My thigh felt tight, as if something was pressing on my muscles. I flipped the sheets back so I could see my leg, the top of my thigh covered in a bandage.

"You nearly died." Dan whimpered softly. He looked down at his hands. "I couldn't get it to stop and when – when you were in here and they stabilised you, I – I couldn't get it off. I couldn't get the blood off."

I could see the guilt written across his face. He looked so miserable.

"Dan, this isn't your fault." I said. "I'm alive because of you."

"No." Dan said, clenching his jaw. "You're in here because of me. If I – if I had pulled you away from him or if I had just left him . . ." He trailed off, looking away.

"Dan." I said. "If you had left him, he would have been healed with that stuff that heals in two seconds once Crime Minister found him and he would running rampage as we speak, killing who knows how many people. And you couldn't have known that he would stab me. We _both_ forgot about the knife."

Dan shook his head and turned to look at me. "Zo, I almost lost you."

"But you didn't." I told him.

Dan smiled sadly. "Thank God."

I smiled. "It would take a lot for you to lose me, Daniel."

Dan smiled and leaned forward, his hand sliding across my jaw gently.

"Guess what?" He whispered. Our faces were so close together; the tip of his nose was sliding against mine.

"What?" I whispered, sliding my hands up his arms and shoulders, to rest on his neck.

"I kept my promise. I didn't change." Dan whispered. I smiled, tightening my grip on his neck and he kissed me fiercely, pouring all the emotions he'd been feeling ever since Jamie had stabbed me into the kiss.

His mouth pressed against mine, passionately at first, but then his kisses slowly became softer, more gentle. As I tightened my grip on him, I realised that he felt thinner.

As we broke apart, I could hear Dan breathing heavily.

"How long was I out?" I asked quietly, my eyes still closed. I heard Dan swallow and I opened my eyes, taking in his guilty expression.

"Why are you guilty?" I asked. "How. Long. Was I. Out?"

"Two weeks." Dan said.

"But why'd you look guilty?" I asked.

"I haven't eaten much." He said.

I figured that. He looked a lot thinner – his clothes hung more loosely on his body and his face looked thinner than it had before I was stabbed. He looked as if he eaten just enough to keep himself alive.

"You look like crap, Morgan." I told him and he laughed, kissing my forehead softly. "I'll start putting weight on, I promise."

"Yeah, that'll happen as soon as Zoe –" Aneisha started as she walked in, but broke off as she saw me.

"Hi, Neish." I said, smiling.

Aneisha grinned and quickly stuck her head out the door. "Guys, Zoe's awake!"

"Here we go." Dan muttered, pulling his chair closer to the bed. He took his hand in mine, his fingers warm against mine. He kissed my shoulder as I watched the door and everyone who came in.

First Aneisha, then Lucas, then Frank and Stella and finally Tom came in. Lucas sat on the other side of my bed. Dan grinned at him and I glanced between the two of them. They looked as if they had some big secret I didn't know about, but it would affect every aspect of my life.

"Dan? Luke? What's going on?"

Lucas grinned. "Do you want to tell her or should I?"

Dan shrugged. "You can tell her if you want."

"Just one of you tell me!" I cried in frustration. Dan laughed and grinned at Lucas. "Better tell her soon, she's going to explode."

"Hey, I may have just woken up from a two-week coma, but I can still kick your ass." I told him. Dan held up both his hands in surrender.

"I'm going to join M.I.9." Lucas said, grinning.

"But you hate M.I.9!" I told him.

Lucas smiled. "That was before I knew how great it feels to save someone's life. I want to apologize for ever trying to get you to quit. I imagine that it's so much more rewarding for you."

I grinned. "Thank you, Lucas. That means a lot."

"You two may want to hear this." Frank said suddenly.

"Hear what?" Dan asked.

Without saying a word, Frank pulled out his spy pod and fiddled with it for a second before I heard an all-too-familiar voice start playing through it that sent shivers down my spine.

_"They've escaped from us again."_ Crime Minister hissed. _"And it's all that boy's fault."_

_"Although his obsession with his brother was part of his downfall, it was not all Jamie's fault."_ Mastermind replied, his voice surprisingly calm._ "Daniel is stubborn and V95 is in love with him and no longer ours."_

_"What do you want me to do?"_ Crime Minister asked. _"We've tried so many times to kill them, but it's like they've got nine lives."_

_"Leave them. We've already lost too many agents to continue going after them."_ Mastermind replied. _"Eventually, death will find them and make their demise immensely painful."_

Frank shoved the spy pod back into his pocket. I realised that I was breathing heavily as I asked slowly; "Frank? What was that?"

"An audio transmission M.I.9 intercepted early this morning." Stella answered, a small smile on her mouth.

"We're safe?" I asked softly.

Frank and Stella both nodded and I felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

We were safe. We were safe. We were finally safe.

"Zo." Dan whispered. I turned to look at him and smiled as he leaned forward, his fingers sliding to the back of my neck as he kissed me as passionately as he dared with everyone watching us. I pulled him closer, throwing every one of my inhibitions out the window. I suddenly didn't care that we were in a crowded room. I loved him so much and I was so happy to be alive and to be finally safe that in that, nothing mattered to me except for him.

I was gasping for air, but it didn't matter because so was Dan. He slid his fingers into my hair and pushed himself even closer to me, because if he'd pulled me any closer, he would've dragged me off the bed and caused me an incredible amount of pain.

When we broke apart for air, I grinned, my eyes opening so I could see him. I giggled happily and I felt Dan grin against my mouth.

"Oh God." Tom groaned. "You two are going to be worse than you were before, aren't you?"

I laughed and hid my face in Dan's neck in an effort to hide my blushing cheeks and he wrapped his arm around my waist and kissed my hair gently.

I yawned, burying my face further into Dan's neck.

"You should sleep." Dan said.

"All I've done for two weeks straight is sleep!" I protested weakly.

"And you're still recovering. Sleep, Zo. Nothing's going to have changed when you wake up."

Reluctantly, I let Dan help me lie down again, closing my eyes.

"Neish? Tom?" I mumbled drowsily, opening my eyes a crack to look at them.

"Yeah, Zoe?" Aneisha said, her voice soft, as she were far away, instead of a few metres in front of me.

"Make sure Dan eats." I mumbled.

"I'll shove it down his throat if I have to." Tom promised.

I smiled and I heard Dan laugh. Someone kissed my forehead and Dan whispered, "Sweet dreams, Zo."

* * *

A week later, I walked up the steps to Dan's house and before I could knock on the door, Becky yelled my name as loudly as she possibly could and hugged me tightly. She knocked me backwards a little and I stepped back to steady myself, but I put too much on my injured leg too fast. I shifted my weight off my leg as Becky pulled back and I was astonished to see tears sparkling in her eyes that were so much like Dan's.

"You realise I consider you the sister I never had, right?" Becky said softly.

In that moment, I could've cried. The only thing I ever could have wanted from Dan's family, that I ever could have asked for, was acceptance. I'd gotten it pretty easily with Maria and I'd never really met Dan's father, so I had no idea whether he accepted me or not.

Becky had done so much more than I had expected.

After Mastermind had attacked her, I had thrown all hopes of her trusting me out the window. The morning after my birthday party, I had started to hope that maybe we could be somewhat close. Now, I realised that I did consider her my sister. I realised that I admired a lot about her – but more specifically her strength. She was fourteen and she held her own against a KORPS attack. I couldn't help noticing that she would make a great M.I.9 agent.

"You're incredible, sister." I told her.

Becky grinned and hugged me again. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"If you two are done?" Dan's voice rang out from behind Becky. "I'd like my girlfriend back."

"He's a bit possessive, isn't he?" Becky said as she pulled away and walked back into the house.

"You don't know the half of it." I told her. Becky laughed as she disappeared inside the house and I turned my attention to Dan, leaning against the doorframe. He smiled as he straightened his body and moved towards me, his hand snaking up to rest on my jaw.

"I love you." I whispered softly, looking up at him. Dan kissed me gently at first, but then kiss then intensified, Dan's fingers finding their way to my hair and my own fingers tangling in the fabric of his shirt.

When we broke apart, he gently untangled his fingers from my hair and hugged me tightly, burying his face in my hair. I released his shirt and wrapped my arms around his waist, listening to the gentle rhythm of his heartbeat.

"I keep almost losing you." Dan whispered.

"Dan, the only way you could lose me is if you wanted to." I whispered.

"Thank God for that." Dan mumbled. "Because I don't want to."

I smiled against his neck. "It feels weird to be safe again."

Dan kissed my cheek. "It'll sink in eventually."

I pulled back a little, smiling slightly as his piercing blue eyes watched me intently. I placed one of my hands on his cheek and he smiled. For the first time in long time, there was true happiness sparkling in the expression. I could feel a similar amount of happiness swirling in my heart as it finally sunk in; we were safe. Finally, we were safe.

"Did you tell Becky?" I asked softly, letting my hands slip down so they rested on his neck.

"I tried to. But I couldn't - I couldn't bring myself to do it."

I nodded, reaching up and pressing my lips to his. He kissed me back passionately, deepening the kiss. He started to lead me back into the house, it started raining.

"You've got to be kidding me." Dan said, pulling his mouth away from mine and looking up at the sky as water rushed over his face, instantly wetting his skin and hair and clothes.

I laughed and kissed his jaw gently. "I always wanted a kiss in the rain."

"And a kiss in the rain you shall have." Dan replied. He kissed me again and this time the kiss wasn't as rushed, it was slow and soft, yet it somehow just as intense.

I knew that we would never be completely safe until Crime Minister and Mastermind and every one of their followers were behind bars. I knew that. But they weren't making a point of going after us anymore; and that was the best that we could hope for. I also knew one other thing; that as long I was alive, I would need Dan to be my strength. No criminal mastermind could change that.

Dan believed I was correctly named. He believed that I was everything his life meant personified. My beliefs were different. When all hope was lost, he always made sure I lived through it. He was my everything; He was my best friend, my boyfriend, my protector, my strength.

He was my whole Life and I knew I wanted to spend every day until I died by his side.

I tangled my fingers in Dan's damp hair and pushed myself closer to him so that the only thing that separated us was our saturated clothing.

I wasn't living on borrowed time anymore. This was life. Life had ups and downs, but if you fought for love and for friendship, you always made it to the end. Every time.

_"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."_

- Mae West


End file.
